85 cancelled, he was posted to Greenwood, Nova Scotia, for instruction on the CP-107 Argus. In October 1961, he was posted to Summerside, PEI, where 415 squadron was being reactivated for its Anti-Submarine Warfare role. TOM: It was at Summerside where my aviation career really “took flight”—the Argus was a fascinating aircraft, and I traveled with it every chance I got. It was an amazing experience for a kid in his mid-twenties. While there I apprenticed myself to Don Sears who owned/ran the town’s photography shop and studio. Learning a lot about photo composition and dark-room techniques, I took quite a few Argus pictures. Married back at Montreal in 1967, Tom and his new bride, Diane, moved down to PEI. Although Tom loved the RCAF, and working/flying with the Argus, he soon realized Diane was not cut out for air force life. While back in St. Jean for a French Immersion course, he had tested the waters of civilian life by submitting an on-spec application for employment at Air Canada. On returning to PEI, a letter arrived with a timely job offer fromAir Canada. Tom’s time in the air force was over. In August 1969, #157677 Corporal Thomas Andrew Gosling took his permanent leave from the Royal Canadian Air Force. This turned out to be an excellent move, for with Air Canada he would now be maintaining the whole aircraft, not just the engines. The following month, coincident with the birth of their son Christopher, Tom started at Air Canada in the parts marshalling department of the engine power plant division where he was soon bored to tears. During his second week there, when being told that his job at Air Canada was in the power plant and he was never going to work on an aircraft again, crisis ensued. The next day, his transfer request to aircraft maintenance was in. Fortunately, company policy was to honour qualified transfer requests before new-hiring from the outside. A month later he was in the linemaintenance division where he spent the following six months reading everything he could find on aircraft airframe systems before writing his Aircraft Maintenance Engineering papers. While in Montreal, he became experienced on Viscounts, Vanguards, DC-8s, DC-9s, B-727s, B- 747s and the L-1011 which he particularly enjoyed as it was a very advanced aircraft for its time. In 1977, he transferred down to Toronto and wrote his Air Canada Maintenance & Inspection Certificate endorsed on the L-1011. In 1982, Air Canada was one of the launch customers for the B-767, and much of Tom’s time was assigned to it: he was in Maintenance Performance Analysis, Technical Support Engineering and on the Performance Improvement Team, during which time he started doing computer-based fault analysis on his own. Despite some interesting successes, Air Canada was not impressed. Involved with fin #604 before and immediately after its Gimli Glider event, the system analyst in Tom continues to wonder if there had been enough residual fuel in the APU feed line to start the APU and get enough power to extend the gear fully and brake the aircraft properly. TOM: I can remember showing my Dad the flight deck of a 767 in Toronto, demonstrating how the FMS and IRS had replaced him as a Lanc navigator. Setting up the FMS, I entered Toronto CYYZ and then entered the gate number where prompted. My Dad asked me why I had entered the gate number, and I told him the FMS had to know exactly where the aircraft started so it could tell exactly where it was throughout the flight. He replied that, returning from missions over Germany, all he wanted to do was hit England. Top: On detachment at RAF Ballykelly 1963 Left: CAF Greenwood 1960
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