Warbird Information Exchange

The new PSAM PBY Bu 48426 has almost been completely refinished in her original scheme and the tricolor almost is complete. Midway in the process a coming out party was held, and almost 300 families turned out for the event. Notable were several PBY crewmen including Ken Claypool, a wartime crewmember of this aircraft who flew in 48426 out of Dutch Harbor, Attu and Kiska. Ken brought his grandkids and family out to see the airplane and remarked we had gotten it pretty close! Actually the camo pattern came directly from photos he had saved of 26, and the tricolor is accurate as possible. Note the medium blue on the leading edges of the wings, as original pictures show.

A completely perfect day in all ways, and our next fly day will be for the Cochran Airshow in the valley next month.

very nice.

I guess I have all the more reason to try and get back out to the left coast soon, I just love cats!

Tim

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www.tailhookstudio.com

I had the pleasure of sitting next to JD and his lovey wife at the POF Dinner on the 13th.
Jim and I go back a ways while working at Fighter Rebuilders and then on several of Bob Pond's a/c. It was good to see Bob and Josie at the dinner as well.
JD talked of the Cat and the work being done to it. He mentioned he has never before painted anything with so much surface area. He always needed another cup of mixed paint.
Rich

Rich,

Would have loved to have been there at POF dinner...but was sanding that plane. Thanks for the tour in Coatesville! Hopefully I can see that Mustang again...All the best!

JOE

Nice work, Joe.

That is really great! The plane looks fantastic.

This leads me to a question.

How many PBY's (restored, non-waterbombers) are flying these days?

Would be a really nifty gathering, wouldn't you think?

Cheers,

David

Wow! THat would be a great gathering.

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Chris Henry
EAA Aviation Museum Director

We have this one flying in the Netherlands !

http://www.catalina-pby.nl/site/index.php?lang=en


Paul

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Associate member of the Awon
http://www.awon.org/
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Aero Part Identify Board
http://www.iphpbb.com/board/fs-81805422nx79380.html

"Once you have flown, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, there you long to return."

Leonardo Da Vinci (1452-1519)

I am curious to know...There are not many flying. Possibly four in the USA at any one time?

I'd say a few more than that. DaveyMac, check in at PBY@yahoo.com

Joe, how about names of all the good Cat crew? Looking good and please keep those beautiful spinners!


floats up!
Doug Ratchford Canso42
plane capt. N68740 PBY5A @Lone Star.
mem. PBY@yahoo

DaveyMac,
Only N85U still flies in the US as a tanker. Many others were tankers and some have been restored to civil standard, some to warbird.

Joe's N31325 is looking good.
Connie Edwards in Big Spring Tx. has
Four November Charlie and the Flyin' Turtle

N7057C recently changed hands and flew to its new home,
Charlie Largey's N96UC is an unknown right now. It was flying recently though.
Tillamook Air Museum flies N2172N. One of that a/c's original pilots is a regular on PBY@ahoo.
N287, nice black cat resto was recently sold European. Don't know its current status.
Ben Kalka's N84857 should be close to finished now.
Jerry Yagen at The Fighter Factory flies N9521C
N206M , ex N314CF has been undergoing a lot of major work and should be pretty far along. Haven't heard lately.

N343CV, ex C-FOFI is in Az. and WIXer Matt Gunsch can tell us more about that one.

Joe, what is the staus of the other ex SLAFCO cats?
Keep sending pix of N31325.

David Legg, got any input on these?

floats up,
Doug Ratchford.

The SLAFCO Cats are...

N2763A? or close to it is dissasembled and in Chino CA with Yanks Air Museum.



N9825Z the last PBY 6A built is under long term resto to fly in Moses Lake. The owner needs someone who understands airplanes an has rebuilt them to fly before. This is the last PBY at Moses Lake. The owner has all parts needed for the resto, turrets and all by the way.



N9505C has be detanked like ours and is stored in Euphrata, WA kind of waiting for further work. Aircraft still retains bomb doors and is getting painted in a tricolor scheme as time passes.



The two Edwards planes are flyable.

N206M needs another 200K or so to finish I am told.

Looks like still no more than 4 or 5 others is my guess....

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Following on from Doug's prompt above about other airworthy PBYs, the most obvious ommission to date is the Duxford, UK-based former RCAF Canso A G-PBYA painted as the 5th ERS, 8th Air Force OA-10A 44-33915 shown above. This is arguably the most active PBY in the world. Other regular 'flyers' are PBY-6A VH-PBZ in Australia, Canso A ZK-PBY in New Zealand and Canso A C-FPQL with the CWH in Canada.

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David Legg
Editor, The Catalina News
The Catalina Society
Author: Consolidated PBY Catalina - The Peacetime Record

It's hard to see in the pics, but regarding the nose art... what was the rationale to paint a WWII plane for a museum with artwork that clearly references a 1970's/1980's movie like Star Wars... especially considering the care and pains that were taken to get the right tri-color scheme?

'Course, I can't complain 'cause I didn't pay for 'er!

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Ryan Keough
Stow, MA

My apologies David,
I only rattled off the ones in the States.
Doug