Lightning wrote:
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
In regards to my statement in a post 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?)
Obviously if they have built new units the Blisters would seem surplus, other than a deal to provide them to the second flying Cat in Australia, as it is the only Cat in Australia without a set, but very recent discussions from that direction suggested they are still hunting for a set themselves, along with a turret.
So I do assume the Blisters currently on the HARS aircraft are original units, (assumed to be the ones from Lake Boga, or at least using the outers from Lake Boga?) as to the arrangements with Lake Boga as to when they go back, and in what form I cant comment.
I know HARS had located some "inners" and with those the Sea Bitch modified "outers" could be returned to original eye lid configuration from the current hatch configuration, and when restored, fitted to either aircraft.
My main reason for posting above was really to indicate the Blisters are likely to be accounted for, and not looking for a home.
When I purchased "Sea Bitch" I was inundated with parties wanting to acquire her blisters, "parting her out" was'nt my objective when bidding, and I knew without her blisters she would loose her appeal as a static display for most museums, so I resisted the many offers of significant cash at the time.
I also resisted offers of acquisition that seemed focused on stripping her rather than preserving her.
It did surprise me that there were no other bidders for "Sea Bitch" at the time - other than the scrappers - given the number of people keen to get her blisters, (and for that matter no other bidders from local US museums keen to acquire her for static display)
The intention now by Pima to use her to preserve a fire bomber example free's up the Blisters for use elsewhere, and given the role of the PBY in fire bombing it is a suitable and worthy objective.
- In regards to the planned recovery to Australia -
I looked at this briefly myself when first acquired, but my objective was to save her, not to retain her in my ownership, or to bring her into the Moorabbin collection, I then explored the interest of other local museums to acquire her and return her to Australia and it was assessed by the Qantas Founders Museum among others.
- A number of Australian interests made offers to acquire her and a private partnership acquired her from me with the intention of bringing her to Australia for that private collection, however the down turn related to the GFC, and the costs associated with transport caused a re-think and the aircraft changed hands again to HARS.
While I would have been pleased to see her come to Australia, Pima had been expressing interest from the time I acquired her, and I always felt Pima was the best home for her in the US if the recovery to Australia was not viable.
Having been a temporary owner of Sea Bitch and played a small part in her survival, I look forward to seeing her restored one day at Pima.
Finally I would again like to put on the public record my great appreciation to the man who really did save her - Gary Austin - without Gary bringing the auction to our attention, and then assisting me to register, bid in the auction, and most importantly then undertaking the physical work of recovery and the generous place for storage, "Sea Bitch" would have dis-appeared into the smelter as quickly as the two DC-3's that were auctioned next to her at the time.
Thankyou Gary for your efforts, and your personal assistance to me with Sea Bitch etc, (which all started over pursuit here on WIX of the PBY Beaching Gear which were also recently picked up)
regards
Mark Pilkington
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