Warbird Information Exchange

[quote="mustangdriver"]Oh my god! I would say so. Where did that PBY end up?[/quote]

Where and when was that photo taken? We can run down that Pboat if we know time and place.

Canso42 WIXer and member PBY@yahoo.

New England Air Museum, Oct 1986.
I will check to see if I have more pics of the PBY and will try to post them later.
Jerry (Airdales on WIX) may know more about the whereabouts of the PBY.

Phil

Belle & Friends


Outer wings are nicely stacked


Hey its one of those funny nosed ones


I think that tire is worn-out


And this is what it looks like today!


OK OK, My X Girlfriend says we fooled you on that last one

Phil

P.S. Last two photos are from Manchester N.H. in Sep 1991.

I have a ton more pics if you guys would like to see them. I can post them when I get home from work tonight.

_________________
Chris Henry
EAA Aviation Museum Director

Phil65 and crew,
The PBY next to Belle in the 1986 photo is N3936A, BuNo33966, c/n 1520 belonging to Kermit Weeks in Florida. He acquired it a few years after the photo was taken. It was built in Consolidated San D. for Navy issue but ended up flying some with the Coast Guard. From the c/n its one of the older surviving 5A's, most likely an early 1942 build.
It hasn't flown since the mid fifties and as the photos show was the worse for wear from weather but was still a substantially complete airframe. I don't know what Weeks has done with it but at least it's in storage out of the elements.

Mark Aldrich on PBY@yahoo identified it from location and date and with those numbers I got the rest from David Legg.

Doug Ratchford "Canso42"
plane captain -Lone Star's PBY
member PBY@Yahoo

NOT! I spotted that 6A tail right away, pardner. Which p-boat is 70-P from 1991 anyway? Also what is that odd little pug-nosed high wing twin at the far left?

Doug

MustangDriver,
Yes please post a ton of pix. Thank you!
Canso42

I posted the following back in December of 2006 regarding PBY-5A BuNO 33966:

It appears that Kermit Weeks' first PBY-5A, BuNo 33966, ex-N3936A may, and I repeat may, be a WWII combat veteran!!! I did a Google search on "PBY" + "33966" and came up with the following information from http://www.vpnavy.com/vp49_1943.html:

A BIT OF HISTORY: "00JUL43--On the night of 21 December (1942?), two PBY-5A's, 58-V-3 (Bu.No. 34029) and 49-V-3 (Bu.No. 33966) departed to NAS Attu, Alaska (the farthermost outpost of the U.S.A. on the northern march to Tokyo) to conduct night bombing and photographic reconnaisance of the Paramishiru - Shimushu area. Rendezvous was affected south of Nassacre Bay and base course set for the target. "How goes it" curves with precomputed courses and distances were used. The frist 259 miles out were flown at an altitude of about 800 feet, speed 90 knows indicated, automatic lean and 35 inches manifold pressure, with RPM's to give desired air speed. Frequent snow squalls were encountered during this part of the flight, contact between planes being maintained by use of IFF and radar. At about 300 miles from base solid overcast and continious snow were encountered, but altitude and speed were maintained for another 100 miles. In accordance with previous agreement at the end of the third hour, climb to 8500 feet was commenced, heavy icing was encoutered. The temperature drop was terrific and no heaters had ben installed in the planes - non available. Wing and tail de-icers worked very well, and rendesvous was accomplished on top. Celestial navigation used exclusevely through-out the entire trip, and success of this mission and the others that were to follow are directly attributable to the skill of the pilot, and crew and the outstanding ability of the navigators. The target was picked up by radar and showed the planes to be a few miles to the north of target. The pilots changed ocurse and crossed the coast line of Russia Kamchatka peninsula at Cape Lapatka. Araido, an extinct volcano just north of Paramushiru, was then picked up by Radar and taking departure from there planes skirted the northwest coast of Shimushu and turned in over Imai Zaki area dropping bombs in stick, heading toward Kataska. There was very little anti-aircraft action and no fighter opposition. The planes were over target area for approx. one hour, and after dropping all bombs and flash bombs for photographics, planes headed for NAS Attu, Alaska, 700 miles to east. Planes landed NAS Attu, Alaska at 1135, on the morning of 22 December, after thirteen hours of the coldest, most uncertain hours in the air that any of the two crews had ever known..." Archive: NARA-San Bruno Record Group: 321534009, SubGroup: TBD, Page: 09, Unit: VP-43..." Contributed by Eric Mitchell eric_mitchell@ccmail.com WEBSITE: www.pby.com

I have not tried to verify this information but the contributor, Eric Miller sites the source: "National Archives and Records Administration - San Bruno, California branch: Record Group 321534009, SubGroup: TBD, page 09, Unit: VP-43 ...".

I've been away on Vacation so I couldn't answer any of this thread. The PBY from NEAM that Kermit now owns was stripped but very complete, meaning scacre radio racks gun mounts etc. The bestthing was that the museum did put some preservative on the airframe and the hull is betterthan many that are currently legal for water landings. It's been a few years now, but originally, Kermit was planning to pick up an airworthy "Fire Bomber" PBY and place the airworthy parts on NEAM's old bird. Don't know if that's changes or if the Florida climate has done damage to the PBY.
The sale of the PBY and A-24 put up NEAM's restoration building. In the end, that sale has helped to save a lot of NEAM's airframes.
Jerry

_________________
"Always remember that, when you enter the ocean or the forest, you are no longer at the top of the food chain."

Burnelli Flying Wing I think.

Eric

_________________
The air resounds from the Rolls-Royce roar!
To an enemy the warning is dire: here only eagles soar,
and the last thing he'll see is a mirrored Spitfire!

Some great pics will be posted of the B-17 tonight when I get home. I took some really cool shots.

_________________
Chris Henry
EAA Aviation Museum Director

Here are some more pics. Some of them are from out my office window, while others are from out on the ramp.








Enjoy. I was trying to be artistic in some of these. I am still learning.

_________________
Chris Henry
EAA Aviation Museum Director

Hey Doug,Your not talking about my X were you?

Eric got it right and I think my buddy Kenny (klang on WIX) has some stories about this bird.
http://www.neam.org/inventory/airprofile.asp?ID=14

Thanks for the info on the PBY everybody and I think the 70-P PBY was from the Geneseo Boys.

Phil

Mustangdriver,
I want to work in your office!

_________________
"Everyone wants to live here (New Jersey), evidenced by the fact that it has the highest population per capita in the U.S..."

It's a cryin' shame Mustang Driver has such a boring job. We should all go visit his office and cheer him up.

Todd H. Thanks for the P-boat lore-that's a reliable source in my book. As a museum vol. myself, it's always good when you have the individual history of the aircraft.

PBY 70-P was indeed the one formerly from Geneseo. Last year it went to American Airpower Museum in New York after a MOH. For the last decade or so it's been marked 62-P or for a while 62-P-10. N7057C.

Canso42