PBY(not yet scrapped)$$ help may be needed by'retroaviation'

[Second Air Force]

Good to see her headed to her new home. I'm glad you saved her, Gary.

Scott

[Miscue]

Did I miss something? I thought the P-boat was going to Australia? What happened with that?

[retroaviation]

OK, it's going to be me to ask the DUMB questions; where did Pima get wings to put on her

I'd have to let Jamesintucson give the "qualified" answer on that, but I believe they're using the wings and tail off of an old firebomber wreck they had. They needed this fuselage, since theirs is pretty mangled up.

[Jack Cook]

So to sum this up....................
The CAF's trash is now someone else's treasure
Good job Gary, Mark, Pima et al

[Speedy]

God Speed, Sea Bitch!

You deserve a good home.

And thanks to Gary for saving her.

[Joe Scheil]

The wings and tail surfaces are from OA-10A 44-34049, ex N322FA. This one was at March field for a while and made it to Pima a few years ago. Fuselage is there too, but badly damaged.

[jamesintucson]

The wings and tail surfaces are from OA-10A 44-34049, ex N322FA. This one was at March field for a while and made it to Pima a few years ago. Fuselage is there too, but badly damaged.

Correct. We'll be using parts from that PBY along with bits from another pair of partial fuselages we have to replace the worst of the corroded sections of the PBY from Austin Acres. The waist blisters from Gary's PBY will be going to Australia for a restoration there. When restored the PBY will be finished as N322FA.

James

[Ztex]

Great to see that she will be cared for by the fine folks at Pima!

This is a good conclusion to story that looked very bad in the beginning.

Thanks Gary!

Thanks Pima!

[Steve Nelson]

Here are some pics I took of the Pima Pile O' PBY Parts back in 2004 Good to know they'll be incorporated into a complete airplane!

SN

[Lightning]

Howdy James

Would you know by chance which Museum in Oz will be recieving those Blisters ?

Lightning

[Mark_Pilkington]

Howdy James

Would you know by chance which Museum in Oz will be recieving those Blisters ?

Lightning

The blisters are going to HARS to free up a borrowed set back to the Lake Boga Cat A24-30.

Its great to see Sea Bitch has finally made it into preservation, I couldnt think of a better place for her to live out her days!, a nice dry home well away from the salt spray! - great outcome!

In regards to my statement above - I would like to clarify it (and have now edited it to reflect the same points)

I understand the manufacturing was far more difficult than expected, and to be fair my comment above is based on assumptions arising from that rather than confirmation, (and certainly not as a statement on behalf of HARS. and I obviously could stand to be corrected?)

Regards

Mark Pilkington

Last edited by Mark_Pilkington on Thu Oct 01, 2009 4:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[Lightning]

Howdy Mark

Thats interesting, its been printed that HARS had manufactured their own new Blisters using the Lake Boga Cat set as templetes.
So I take it HARS ended up puting the Lake Boga Blisters on their Cat and Sea Bitch Blisters are going to Lake Boga Cat ?

Lightning

[the330thbg]

So what happened to her going to Australia?

[Django]

So will she be displayed as a Fire Bomber then (N322FA)?

The registry for N322FA says delivery to the USAAF. They operated PBYs?

Glad that a museum is finally getting something that they obviously need. I won't say good home, because the Sea Bitch already had a good home.

[RNDMTRS4EVR]

So if you display her as a former airtanker, someone needs to get in touch with John Wells, as I think he would like to see the static display of his old airplane. He and his copilot were really lucky to survive that crash.

Scott......