PBY flight photos and maybe more...

[The Inspector]

Gads! I can't remember, that was thirty plus years ago and I suffer from CRS these days. I think once Philiepe (sp?) did the flying and no one was impressed with his skills or talents.

[richkolasa]

Speaking of said PBY...this was at Teterboro, NJ:



And back to the AAM PBY, I think this was around 1994 judging by the shutter curtain light bleed I was getting on the old Minolta SRT-101 at that time. I'd title this "For the love of God, please get a danged Fed Standard color chip!":

[The Inspector]

RICOLASA,
Are you sure thats Cousteaus old -6? I recall that about 8 months after it left PAN-AIR @ Lakefront for the last time, Philepe stuck into a really big wave off the coast of Spain and totaled it and it sank-

[richkolasa]

The photos are of two different airframes. I just posted the AAM PBY photo because I'd mentioned it a few messages ago in regards to a "gathering". Once it returns to the air, there will be 3 Cats/Cansos withing about 500 miles from Hamilton to Va Beach.

The Cousteau Cat indeed was destroyed and sunken. That photo was taken in the mid-1970s at Teterboro, note the cars in the background.

[richkolasa]

Oh, I've posted another PBY taxi video on my site (more taxi and take-off to come soon).

http://www.crystalgraphix.com/video/PBY_2.wmv

[Canso42]

Philippe Cousteau's lack of flying skills totalled him too.

[Pogo]

Good heavens, that's a beautiful airplane!!! . . . I just got around to checking this thread, I live in Hurricaneville and have been kinda busy lately. In related news, I saw that the AN-2 at LaPorte is indeed broken in halfsies. The fuse is rather neatly separated in line with the fwd edge of the door. Gee Zusss, they just had the thing pretty much airworthy too. I'd like to post this info where appropriate that interested parties may see it but am simply too exhausted to even think straight so somebody do 'er for me? Thx!

Done...You get some rest! ..Z...

[Ztex]

Great Videos Rich!

Looking forward to seeing the take off!

[David Legg]

I flew in N9521C during its sojourn in the UK as part of its protracted delivery flight from South Africa to the USA. This was a few days before the photos of it leaving Iceland earlier in this thread. The thing I most remember about the flight (apart from the novelty of it having a bow turret - the only one of several Cats I've flown in to have one) is that the blister compartment had bench-type seats parallel to the hull sides complete with lap straps. Thus it was possible to sit in the blisters for take off and landing and be strapped in - you cannot do that in many airworthy Cats these days. It was like being in the rear seats of a London double-decker bus - and not much faster! Lovely 'plane.

[B25PBYGUY]

Yes, David, the seating remains the same. As such, we jokingly refer to compartment F, (the blister portion) as "The Vista Compartment". We just need a bar and galley.

[David Legg]

Funnily enough, another Catalina I have flown in had just that! I flew in Z-CAT (now ZK-PBY in New Zealand) in Africa in the early-90s when Pierre and Antoinette Jaunet were using it for charters. It had a small bar on the starboard side of the hull aft of the blisters and an equally small aviation and Africa library of books on the port side. On one occasion after landing on Lake Kivu on the Zaire/Rwanda border, local officials drank the bar dry when they boarded the Cat' - no doubt this played a part in easing the necessary paperwork! Although the seats in the blisters on Z-CAT were cushioned, they did not have belts and could not be used for take offs and landings (officially). The galley was in the main undercarriage compartment incidentally. Another great Catalina and, like N9521C, still flying