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PostPosted: Mon Mar 07, 2011 5:33 pm 
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none can be saved?

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PostPosted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 5:31 am 
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whistlingdeathcorsairs wrote:
none can be saved?



I'm not sure what you are referring to?

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These were taken at the Ephrata, WA, airport in Spring 1991. They are the fuselages of PBY-6A N2886D/BuNo 64034 and PBY-5A BuNo 33979. N2886D was destroyed in a 1985 accident while scooping water fighting a fire. Both hulks were owned by Bob Schlaflei, who operated a half dozen PBYs in Eastern Washington as air tankers during the 1980s.


Of the two hulks mentioned in the opening post copied above, the blue PBY-5A listed as BuNo 33979 moved to NZ to provide parts support to the flying PBY there and has since moved on to static display in a museum in Taurange NZ as a 3/4 fuselage with mockup turret in its blue USN colour scheme, posts above contain links to its new home.

As per David's post above its now being positively identified
Quote:
As the post referring to my article on the Catalina Society website above shows, the identity of the Tauranga/Ephrata/Hemet hulk was established a while back although since the start of this original thread. To confirm, it is US Navy PBY-5A BuAer48334, more recently N74821 and N9535C.


The White 1/2 fuselage N2886D however succumbed to the scrapper and lost its rear fuselage as per my last post on page 1 of this thread, and has more recently been fully scrapped for parts recovery.

The Australian National Aviation Museum recovered its remains and many other "ex-Schlaflei" parts (left over from the aborted SLAFCO / Moses Lake auction??) such as wings, floats, ailerons, fins, rudders, tailplanes and elevators to support the long term restoration of a former RAAF PBY-5A A24-88 that has combat service as a "Black Cat" in the Pacific.

http://www.aarg.com.au/Catalina.htm

Surplus usable parts that were not shipped to Australia were traded to Pima for other surplus parts for A24-88, so little went to waste or to scrap, so what could be saved, has been saved.

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Mark Pilkington

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PostPosted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 12:52 pm 
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whistlingdeathcorsairs wrote:
none can be saved?


Mark - I assumed the message above was related to the hulk shown on Ruud Leuw's website (PBY-6A C-GFFJ) and mentioned in Kenny Chapman's post and not the various ones that you usefully updated us all on. That being the case I think it is unlikely to be saved as it is pretty inaccessible and due to crash damage is incomplete anyway. It's been there since 1981 and I suspect that is where it will stay.

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Last edited by David Legg on Wed Mar 09, 2011 4:46 am, edited 1 time in total.

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PostPosted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 8:25 pm 
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thank you for the update

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PostPosted: Wed Mar 09, 2011 4:28 am 
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David Legg wrote:
whistlingdeathcorsairs wrote:
none can be saved?


Mark - I assumed the message above was related to the hulk shown on Ruud Leuw's website (PBY-6A C-GFFJ) and mentioned in Kenny Chapman's post and not the various ones that you usefully updated us all on. That being the case I think it is unlikely to be saved as it is pretty inaccessible and due to crash damage is incomplpete anjway. It's been there since 1981 and I suspect that is where it will stay.


Actually David we were given permission to recover C-GFFJ by the Provence and offers of very generous assistance, and were actively exploring it to acquire its rear fuselage for A24-88 until we located a perfect rear fuselage already cut and ready to splice at the tunnel gun location.

We therefore didn't need to proceed with C-GFFJ but that worked out well as we relinquished our options on recovery another group was taking our place and I assume it will be recovered for use in a Canadian restoration, and most likely being added to, not reduced to parts.

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Mark Pilkington

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PostPosted: Wed Mar 09, 2011 4:45 am 
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[quote="

Actually David we were given permission to recover C-GFFJ by the Provence and offers of very generous assistance, and were actively exploring it to acquire its rear fuselage for A24-88 until we located a perfect rear fuselage already cut and ready to splice at the tunnel gun location.

We therefore didn't need to proceed with C-GFFJ but that worked out well as we relinquished our options on recovery another group was taking our place and I assume it will be recovered for use in a Canadian restoration, and most likely being added to, not reduced to parts.

Regards

Mark Pilkington[/quote][/quote][/quote]

That's great news Mark - best of luck to them!

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PostPosted: Wed Mar 09, 2011 5:25 pm 
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:D

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