Clipper, Vol. 11, No. 13, July 7, 1955

              20th YEAR PACIFIC-ALASKA DIVISION
Read From California To Calcutta, From Alaska To Australasia
Vol. 11 NO. 13	PUBLISHED BY THE EMPLOYEES OF PAN AMERICAN WORLD AIRWAYS
23rd YEAR P AA HAS FLOWN IN ALASKA
July 7,1955
QUARTER OF A CENTURY CLUB GROWS
'The semi-annual party honoring 25 year veterans with Pan American was held last week at Green Hills Country Club in Millbrae. The five who received pins are seated in the front row. Left to right they are Russ Secrest of Engineering, Flight Engineer Francis Carrin, S. O. “Mac” McDonald of Engineering, Bert Buhl of Inspection and Flight Engineer Walt Zeigler.
A SALUTE TO 125 YEARS
PAD Honors Five Maintenance Veterans At Dinner Party At Green Hills Country Club In Millbrae
CAB Proposes Drastic Mail Pay Cut For PAD
PAA Argues Order Based On Unrealistic Mail Estimate
The CAB last month issued a Show Cause Order to reduce the temporary mail pay of Pan American in the Pacific from the original 1955 estimate, $11,402,000, to $6,963,000.
That latter amount is the figure that the CAB estimates that PAA will receive for service mail pay alone. This service pay is computed at 50 cents a ton-mile. On all mail carried to Toyko, however, Pan American is paid on the basis of Northwest Airlines’ shorter route mileage.
Pan American has filed an answer to the Show Cause Order, stating that it is based on the unsound premise that the temporary mail rate should meet only the break-even need of PAA’s transpacific operation, with no provision for a return on its investment.
The answer also points out that in recent months it has become apparent that there has been, and will be, a drastic redistribution of the mail allocated to Pan Ameri-(Continued on Page 2)
JUST BELOW THE HORIZON
Someone put her nose into NEW HORIZONS and couldn’t stop reading. The revised edition of PAA’s best-selling travel book is just off the presses and can now be secured at a discount by employees.
Five 25-year veterans were guests of the PAD last Thursday night at a party honoring their long service to Pan American.
One of the men—Flight Engineer Walt Zeigler—was supposed to have been at the party six months ago, hut a little matter of a flight prevented this. After starting in Maintenance in Miami, Walt transferred to the PAD in 1935. He was the first chief mechanic at Wake and also held the same post at Manila and Guam. He was the first and only airport manager at Kingman Reef. Walt became a flight engineer by chance, when a crew member on the China Clipper became ill at Wake. He liked his trip and has been at it ever since.
Russ Secrest also started at Miami and also came to the PAD in 1935. He was first assigned as chief of the Instrument Shop and later moved to Engineering. He served in the resident engineer’s office at both Lockheed and Boeing. He is now supervisor of the appliance unit in Engineering. Russ is the co-inventor of the synchroscope, a 1
device for synchronizing airplane engines.
The story reads the same-.—at first—for Bert Buhl, who started in Miami and came to the PAD in 1935. After serving at Honolulu and Wake he became a flight engineer in 1943. Two years later Bert started a series of transfers back and forth between flight engineering and inspection, due to his low seniority in flight engineering. In 1950 he finally chose inspection rather than go to New York as a flight engineer.
Francis Carrin likewise drew his first PAA check for working in Maintenance in Miami. He saw flight engineering duty on the Africa-Orient Division, Atlantic Division and LAD before coming to the PAD in 1947, where he is still a flight engineer. In his early days at Miami he was noted as an expert in putting wheels on Commodores for beaching.
S. O. “Mac” McDonald did not start in Miami. He did come to the PAD in 1935, though, after working in Maintenance in (Continued on Page 5)
PAA Makes 50,000th Crossing Of Atlantic
Over Two Million Passengers Flown In 16 Years Of Operation
On June 28th a Pan American DC-7B took off from New York on a non-stop flight to Paris. This departure marked PAA’s 50,000th Atlantic crossing.
On June 24, 1939 the Yankee Clipper made the first crossing by any airline. In command of that flying boat was Captain Harold E. Gray, former executive vice president of the PAD and presently holding the same post in the Atlantic Division.
In the 16 years since that flight Pan American has carried 2,021,-483 passengers across the Atlantic.
During this same period Clippers have carried 36 million pounds of cargo and 24 million pounds of mail. At 100 letters per hour it would take about 630 years to deposit that amount of mail in a mail box.
The non-stop New York to London record still belongs to Pan American. It is 8 hours and 55 minutes, made on November 22, 1949.
Your purchase of Savings Bonds helps your government control inflation. But more important, it helps you prepare for a secure future.
GETS IATA POST
Vice President Andre A. Priester has been elected chairman of the Technical Committee of the International Air Transport Association. He will take office in October, succeeding Captain Raymond Dupres, Deputy Director General of Air France.