YYZ Airport Watch Update
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YYZ Airport Watch Welcomes 2 new Committee Directors
At our March 23rd Director's meeting the Committee welcomed our two new YYZ Airport Watch Committee Directors. With the resignation in February by our former website administrator Peter Ivakitsch we decided it was time not only to replace him, but to add another new director and position. We had six applicants for the directors positions, all of whom were excellent candidates, and we appreciate their stepping forward.
Our first new Director is Ryan Cantin who is replacing Peter in the website administration position. Ryan had previously redesigned the YYZAW website and newsletter formats last year. He will not only administer the website, but is in charge of compiling and editing the newletter. If you have any content to add for either, please email it to Ryan.
Our second new director is Rob MacNeil. Rob has many years of airline adminstrative work behind him and fills our newly created position of Community Relations Director. This position was created to focus on interaction with our airport community partners and the general public. Rob will work to spread the word on the program to agencies and businesses around YYZ to not only ensure that they know about us and what we do, but hopefully to create some partnerships that may help us with sponsorship for new YYZAW gear for members.
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In Memory of John Kelley
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| By Peter Ivakitsch |
It is with sadness that we have to report the passing of YYZ Airport Watch member John Kelley. We were contacted by a long time acquaintance of John's, who after trying unsuccessfully for quite some time to contact John, was only now able to confirm for us that John had passed away on July 31, 2009.
 John Kelley - 1927 to 2009
Those who had the pleasure of knowing or meeting John were often treated to some amazing stories about his travels over the years. Hearing about his many gliding, equestrian, and spotting adventures and tales. There are his recollections from the many flights he took on aircraft and airlines that have long since gone. One of my personal memories of John is the night Air Canada's first B-777 visited YYZ. Not wanting to miss this I went out to YYZ and there was John already with camera in hand. The weather was lousy and by the time the aircraft arrived it was dark out. I said to John, "oh well, at least we can log the aircraft's lighting system" :-)
Those who knew John well, know that his driving skills weren't all they should or could be :-) However the skills he lacked behind the wheel he more then made up for with a camera. Over the years John has contributed over 1700 photos to the Airliners.net database, in fact John was also one of their database editors. Some of John's photos date back to when many of us were kids. Can you say "Piston Power"? If you want to take a trip down memory lane, just do a search for his works on Airliners.net.
John was in the first group to sign up for Airport Watch back in 2004. Over the years he was very active, participating in as many tours as he could. If you look through the tour journals, chances are you'll see John front and centre. By the time the A-380 event was organized for our members, John was no longer able to drive. With Parr Yonemoto's assistance, we made sure that John was able to participate in this historic event. Little did we know at the time that John would soon leave us.
In honour of our friend we have set up a small tribute to John on our website. If any members would like to contribute any recollections, we'll be sure to include them.
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In This Issue...
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YYZ Airport Watch Update
Trip Logs, Tours, Events & Member Submitted Content
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In The News
Toronto Pearson Today
YYZ Airport Watch got some attention in the GTAA's quarterly publication "Toronto Pearson Today". Check out page 12 of the Q4 '09 issue to read the article.
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Trip Logs, Tours, Events & Member Submitted Content |
Annual General Meeting - Another Success!
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| Photos courtesy of Brian Dunn & Chris Cavalier - YYZ Airport Watch |
 2009 General Meeting2009 was a very busy year for YYZ Airport Watch. Our member hours reported reached a new high, with over 10,000 hours reported, the first time such a total has been reached! Given that only about 1/3 of the membership is reporting their time, imagine what the total would be if everyone was reporting! Also, our highest reporting member,  2009 General MeetingChris Sundberg reported over 1000 hours by himself! Chris is one of our senior members and his retirement 'job' is time spent spotting at Pearson. GTAA advised us that members reported 20 incidents to them through the AOCC (Airport Operations Control Center) in 2009. We would like to remind members that if they call in to report an incident to GTAA that they should send us an email detailing the circumstances as soon as possible afterwards. This is important in case we need to do a follow up, and it ensures you record all of the details while they are fresh in your mind. In March the diligence of our members paid off and Dave Hose received a GTAA safety award for his efforts in reporting a business that was feeding birds on the runway 23 approach at Wendy's on Airport Road. Good work Dave!
In terms of tours, in 2009 YYZ Airport Watch went to: Bombardier at Downsview on March 29th with 18 members attending, the GTAA North Fire Hall on September 27th with 16 attending, and the ATC Tower November 7th with 20 members attending in two groups.  2009 General MeetingThanks to tours director Derek Horsey for his excellent work in coordinating these interesting tours. Other events included out annual trash pickup at FEDEX for Earth Day on April 19th. 21 members collected about 30 bags of garbage in about an hour. YYZAW members also participated as volunteers in the GTAA’s second annual Runway Run on June 13th. It took place on rwy 24L/06R and provided great opportunities for morning takeoff photos.
 2009 General MeetingFor many members the highlight of 2009 was the arrival on June 1st of the first Airbus A380 at Pearson, introducing Emirates Airlines revenue service from Dubai (DXB) to Pearson. GTAA provided us with an unprecedented opportunity to witness the event firsthand. 70 YYZAW members were privileged to be granted airside access to the Central De-ice Facility to an area we shared with the media. It was the best vantage point to see the arrival on runway 06L, and most members managed to get great photos of the touchdown.
This year our annual general meeting was held for the first time at the GTAA’s Airport Emergency Response Center (AERC) located on Convair Drive near the South Firehall. We had a good turnout of approximately 80 members. After members renewed their memberships and received their new Airport Watch I.D. cards for 2010, Tom Kim present his traditional "best of 2009" slide show to get us started. As always, Tom produced some great photography of unusual visitors over the last year including new airliners and some military visitors too.
 Debbie Ciccotelli Rich Pulman Chris Mitchell Al GorrillAndy Cline was the emcee as usual, made some opening remarks and then introduced Deborah Ciccotelli, GTAA Director of Safety & Security, our GTAA liasion. Deborah remarked about the growing relationship between the GTAA and Airport Watch and thanked all members for their due diligence over the past years in recording and reporting various incidents to the AOCC (Airport Operations Control Center). After Deborah concluded her remarks Andy presented her with an Airport Watch plaque commemorating the inaugural flight of the Emirates Airlines A380, and thanked GTAA for the unique opportunity that they provided to us.
The next guest speaker was Chris Mitchell from the GTAA Security department who talked about the upcoming G8/G20 summit in June at Huntsville and Toronto. He talked about the GTAA’s involvement and the fact that it will be the largest security presence for any event held in Canada. The VIP aircraft are planning to use the Infield Hold Terminal and there will also be some use made of the De-Icing areas to offload and load some of the military transport aircraft that will be coming and going. He was very informative and he took some questions from the members as well. The plan is at this point in time that Airport Watch members, along with the general public will be restricted from accessing the infield areas such as AC Cargo and BAX Global during the period of June 23 - 29th. Roadways from the west side of the airport such as Britannia Road and Courtney Park may also be restricted at times to facilitate VIP motorcades movements.
Next up was Sgt. Al Gorrill our primary liasion with Peel Regional Police Airport Detachment at Pearson. He also talked about the summit and the fact that it will involve security forces from PRP, RCMP, Metro Toronto Police and the DND. Special offices have been set up already to start coordinating the effort between the various branches and forces and start the pre-planning. He also took some questions from the floor and the time was very inter-active.
Our key note speaker was Richard Pulman, an old friend of Andy Cline’s who started out his flying career in the Canadian Forces flying Canadair T-33s. After getting out of the Forces, he moved on to a Metroliner position with Perimeter Airlines in Manitoba before becoming an A320 pilot with Skyservice Airlines. He became a check pilot for Skyservice, and also flew the A330 and 767 while with them. He has more recently completed a contract job flying A330s for Jet Airways of India and will be starting another contract job with Air China in the near future. His talk was very interesting, and humorous at times with some friendly jabs at Andy. The focus of his talk was flying experience and how it relates to the state of pilot training and hours of service required to attain the rank of Captain. He compared today with 10 or 15 years ago and pointed out that people are getting in to flying jobs with fewer "hands-on" hours now than ever before and then expecting to becoming Captains, again with fewer hours than in past years. This is partly because demand is outstripping supply, especially in countries such as India, China and some other Asian countries in particular. Rich's presentation was accompanied by an interesting and well illustrated powerpoint display. Certainly a highlight of the meeting for many, Rich has a talent for public speaking and we encourage him to take his presentation to other groups.
 2009 General Meeting 2009 General MeetingThe meeting was concluded by Andy going over some housekeeping business and announcements, followed up by Steve Cos demonstrating the virtues of the new SBS Radar Box. There was a lot of interest shown in this technology, which makes the spotter's hobby a lot easier.
It was a very successful AGM, and very well received by many members, some of whom thought it was the best yet. As a bonus to using the AERC, GTAA was also kind enough to provide us with gifts of small leatherette clipboards with notepads stamped with the GTAA logo as well as pens to go with them. We thank GTAA for their hospitality.
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787 Sighting in Seattle
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By Dushan Divjak
Photos courtesy of Dushan Divjak - YYZ Airport Watch |
 Boeing 787 in Seattle
 Boeing 787 in Seattle
I was in Seattle in early February and on a Saturday went to the Museum of Flight at Boeing Field. While waiting for some of our friends to arrive, before going in, we suddenly heard a whispering sound to the North. It was this beautiful machine raising to the sky, almost noiseless. When we realised what it was the cameras came out and I got these two shots. The little black dot behind the tip of the tail is a drogue used to measure a number of parameters like temperature air speed and probably turbulence in some way.
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Runway Run 2009
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By Andrew Cline
Photos courtesy of Wendy Derry - YYZ Airport Watch |
 Runway Run 2009
 Runway Run 2009
 Runway Run 2009
The 2009 GTAA Runway Run was the second annual event, held on June 13th. YYZAW members were invited to attend as volunteers, and a number of them jumped at the opportunity. This was not an official organized event for our group, rather an opportunity for YYZAW members to independently offer their services, while representing YYZ Airport Watch. This was a great opportunity to participate in an event with the the rest of the Airport Family. It was also a great chance for the photographers in the crowd to capture morning arrivals on Runway 06L from the unprecedented Runway Run 2009 Runway Run 2009 vantage point of what is normally airside, standing on Runway 06R! The morning sun was beaming on the landers, and special flybys by Viper North's L-29 Delphin and a 425 Squadron Canadian Forces CF-18 Hornet added interest to the normal traffic. The morning sun was beaming on the landers, and special flybys by Viper North's L-29 Delphin and a 425 Squadron Canadian Forces CF-18 Hornet added interest to the normal traffic. The event also included airport personnel pulling the Air Canada Kid's Horizon Airbus 319, which provided YYZAW members opportunities for close-ups of it. Hopefully our participation will increase in 2010!
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Middle East Airport Security 2010 Dubai Debrief
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By Andrew Cline
Photos courtesy of Andrew Cline - YYZ Airport Watch |
 Andy Cline
As part of the committee of YYZ Airport Watch, this February I, together with our treasurer Brian Dunn were very fortunate to travel to Dubai to represent our group as well as the Airport Watch national bureau in Ottawa, speaking at the second annual Airport Security Middle East conference. To demonstrate how closely our airport communities in Canada work together, this presentation is normally given by our national coordinator, Corporal Jacques Brunelle, of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police who is our national advisor on the Airport Watch program. Jacques was unable to attend due to RCMP security commitments for the Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver. Jacques was a professional skier in his younger years, and was tasked by the force to ski patrol duties at Whistler for 6 weeks, which overlapped the conference date. Just before Christmas I received a telephone call from Jacques suggesting that I should go in his place, and I leaped at the opportunity. When I mentioned it to two of our other board members, Brian volunteered to come on his own dime to assist me. Therefore, we as community partners for this program carried out the address instead. This is routinely done given the trust between the operating partners of the Airport Watch program. It was a privilege for us to be asked to carry out this briefing, and the fact that the RCMP think we’re worthy of carrying out the task is truly a vote of confidence in our group.
The conference took place in Dubai from Sunday February 7th to the 10th. Our involvement was initially to deliver a 3 hour workshop on the first day of the program, in fact the first event of the whole conference. Our second event was a 40 minute speech about the Airport Watch program to a group of about 120 on the second day, which included many key Airport Security and industry personnel mainly from the Middle East, but with some representation from around the world.
 Brian Dunn
I went to Ottawa in early January to brainstorm with Jacques Brunelle and put together the basics of the presentation and power point display. Over the subsequent weeks I fleshed out what we had put together with additional images and text to bring it up to a level that we could fill the 3 hour workshop with a speech, ongoing questions and answers, and an interactive segment of discussion on how to set up an Airport Watch chapter in the audience’s own cities.
Our audience included four representatives of the Royal Air Force of Oman, Three from the Dubai Police, One from the Abu Dhabi Airports Company, and one from the General Authority of Civil Aviation in Saudi Arabia. Our audience was quite interactive and posed a number of scenarios and requirements that would make their individual programs a challenge to implement. The Middle East is an entirely different culture and mentality when it comes to aircraft spotting. It is largely a foreign concept to them, however, given the large Commonwealth / British expatriate community in the area, especially the Emirates, it is a good candidate to have Airport Watch groups established. One of the delegates raised his concern that they would be uncomfortable with a simple police check being carried out, and would want to do significantly deeper background checks, as well as interviews and other checks. His suggestion was that any potential candidates would have to have previously been an airport employee for a reasonable amount of time, in order to establish them as ‘part of the airport family’ I quickly agreed that this was a great way to start and that if it was successful, they could perhaps extend the membership in the future to allow other members without these stringent qualifications. This reinforced one of our main points, that every chapter of Airport Watch has it’s own unique requirements and characteristics that must be addressed to allow the creation of the group. They all seemed satisfied with the presentation, and we continued discussion over an amazing lunch buffet.
 Andy Cline
About a week before the conference, when one of the scheduled workshop speakers had to pull out at the last moment, the conference organizers asked Brian to see if he could carry out a substitution, and present a workshop himself. He scrambled to put something together about quality customer service despite the extreme security concerns of the day. It was a shorter presentation than mine due to the expediency required, but we had the same audience as the morning workshop, and they seemed to be appreciative of the topic and it went well, with a good deal of discussion carrying on regarding the various factors, both from security and customer points of view.
On the second day for the conference, I spoke third in front of the full body of conference attendees. Ronald Augustin, Deputy Senior Vice President, KLM Security Services and Conference Chairman opened the speeches talking extensively about the December 25th Delta Airlines incident at Detroit, and how the prescreening security system failed in this case, despite the individual being flagged as a potential terrorist threat. He was followed by Stephen Oswald a former astronaut, and Vice President and General Manager of Intelligence and Security systems from Boeing. He also emphasized that when a suspect arrives at the airport, this should be the last line of security, and advanced checking of individuals should be the key to preventing terrorist incidents from occurring. I went next with an abbreviated version of my powerpoint presentation. After the morning speeches, a networking coffee break took place where we were privileged to meet and speak with more delegates, an surprising number of them with Canadian connections. We also did an interview for a new Middle Eastern magazine publisher. All told, we feel the conference was a worthwhile venue to express our message, and will hopefully have some good follow up interaction with the participants in order to help them set up Airport Watch groups in this uncharted territory.
 Andy Cline
After my presentation on Monday, our official conference duties were complete. Jacques Brunelle had kindly arranged a tour for us of Dubai Airport with the Dubai Airport Police through the kind assistance of the RCMP liaison officer at the Canadian Consulate, Richard Huot and his Program Assistant, Marie Zayat. They also arranged for a similar tour at with the Sharjah Airport Police on Tuesday.
At Dubai Airport we started with a discussion of the overall security operation with two senior members of the General Department of Airport Security, a Brigadier and a Colonel. After a pleasant conversation about the force and its operations we were a treated to an extremely informative behind the scenes tour of all aspects of the airport’s security facilities and operations by the Major in charge of training. We went through all areas including delivery vehicle x-ray facility, checked baggage scanning, Security Operations Centre, and passenger scanning from entry into the terminal to the gate. Dubai currently has over 1800 CCTV cameras in operation, which can track a passenger from the parking lot to the gate. Expansion of the system will see close to double the amount of cameras in the next year, with the opening of the next phase of terminal 3. We were very impressed by the thoroughness of the tour we had, examining all of the various security measures in place at Dubai.
Several measures in place that I have not seen in place elsewhere are the use of baggage scanners immediately on entrance to the airport terminal departures area. All persons coming in are checked on a metal detector and bag scanner, whether they are actually flying or not. This is before anyone even gets to the check in desk. This makes perfect sense to me as it is far too easy for a terrorist to walk into a crowded waiting area with a personal bomb. This reduced the chance of such a person getting close to a large group of people. Similarly, a hand bag check is done on arrival to Dubai as well as Sharjah to aid customs officials looking for contraband, which is another measure I have not experienced in western airports.
 Andy Cline
The tour of the much smaller Sharjah Airport on Tuesday was equally thorough and informative. Sharjah’s market is much different than Dubia, leaning more towards cargo, and is the Air Arabia hub. The two airports have a similar series of security measures in place, despite the difference of scale. Sharjah also uses retinal scans for regular migrant workforce traffic. We were also shown huge bins of contraband and material seized from carry on baggage that was incredible. It’s amazing what people try to carry on to aircraft, from power tools, toy guns, and assorted ‘decorative’ weapons. . A full tour of the ramp there revealed a huge maintenance facility specializing in Eastern European types with at least twleve IL-76s there in various stages of maintenance.
There are no official viewing areas or spotter schemes either at Dubai of Sharjah. Due to intense security at both airports, anyone seen spotting or photographing anywhere near either airport is virtually guaranteed a meeting with the airport police to explain themselves. Sharjah, however offers airside ramp tours for about $120.00 US which must be arranged several weeks in advance. These tours provide access to most areas except the Amiri Flight ramp and the Police Aviation unit’s ramp. Given this recognition of the enthusiast element, and the discussions we carried out with officials during our visits, there is promise that Airport Watch groups may eventually be established at both airports.
On departure from Dubai on the 15th, I experienced the security at Dubai airport first hand, without the luxury of a police escort. I must say it was simple and unobtrusive from the passenger point of view, and flowed quite efficiently. Both Brian and I are very thankful for the opportunity to attend this conference, and see firsthand one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the world. Dubia is an amazing place with unsurpassed grandeur. We were both also privileged to experience flights on Emirates flagship, the Airbus A380. The service and entertainment systems were unsurpassed, even in economy, and legroom was not a factor at all. All very important on the 12+ hour flights. Overall the trip provided us with a very eye-opening perspective on the Airport Security infrastructure in the Middle East, and some amazing networking opportunities that will hopefully see the creation of some new Airport Watch groups there.
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