Warbird Information Exchange

Folks,

I am trying to relocate a Catalina Main Leg Beaching Gear Unit from Baltimore, Curtiss Bay Maryland to Soap Lake/Seattle Washington State.

The Unit is currently not crated and I am interested in doing this as cheaply as possible as its for a not for profit museum restoration in Australia who have a container load of PBY parts departing from Soap Lake in the next few months.


This is an example at Pensacola:



Any leads on museum friendly truckers with backloading space from Maryland to Seattle, or low cost trips in stages to get there would be greatly appreciated.

email contact to me via mark_pilkington@hotmail.com

(btw thats "mark_pilkington" the hyperlink is hiding the underscore between the two names)



Its eventual home is here: http://aarg.com.au/Catalina.htm which is an original RAAF wartime Black Cat in pure flying boat configuration.

It is one of 29 PBY-5A amphibians modified in the field by the RAAF to PBY-5A(M) flying boat status to remove the excess weight of undercarriage etc to improve range and payload, and used in a number of operational missions to mine Japanese ports and shipping lanes including the mining of Manila Harbour to bottle up the Japanese fleet prior to General MacArthur's return to the Phillipines.


Thanks for any assistance / ideas that can be provided?


- *Edit* - I also now have a need to move a second Main leg (this one with no wheels/tyres but similar to the photo above) and tail unit Beaching Gear from Midland Texas to Soap Lake/Seattle Washington State .

http://warbirdinformationexchange.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=292821#292821

As per the Unit above, these are currently not crated and I am interested in doing this as cheaply as possible as its for a not for profit museum restoration in Australia who have a container load of PBY parts departing from Soap Lake in the next few months.


Any leads on museum friendly truckers with backloading space from Texas to Seattle, or low cost trips in stages to get there would also be greatly appreciated.

I hope to have some dimensions and weights early next week.

regards

Mark Pilkington

_________________
20th Century - The Age of Manned Flight
"from Wrights to Armstrong in 66 years -WOW!"

.
Someone suggested a "Pony Express" might be worth exploring, if there are Wixers who could move the parts across a few state lines at a time? Anyone travel between Maryland and Illinois etc? on a regular basis?

These parts are a "pickup" from Baltimore, Curtiss Bay Maryland.


Regards

Mark Pilkington

_________________
20th Century - The Age of Manned Flight
"from Wrights to Armstrong in 66 years -WOW!"