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Meeting history, a dream come true

raph

raph

Registered User
ES
I had the privilege this last week-end to see a PBY Catalina up close and personal as it flew to Barcelona for the Festa al Cel exhibition :D It was a lifelong dream finally come true.
This is the PBY-5A G-PBYA. It was built in 1943 and is currently operated by the Catalina Society and based in Duxford, England.

I had a chat with the pilot and I asked him how it feels like to fly her, and according to him, "it flies like a Super Cub" hahaha :D

Pics!
(click for larger version)

On display, Sabadell Airport























In flight a few hours later, over Barcelona



















What a beautiful day! :D
 
Very cool!

I saw the One at the aviation museum here yesterday, still waiting for lots of love and money to get back together....

First time I ever went through the museum here.... Neat place
 
Connie Edwards re-enacted the Navy's first transatlantic flight of NC4 in his PBY in 1986 which was the US Nary's 75th anniversary. I got to do some work on his PBY. Neat airplane but now I know why the old guys said I needed string tied to my tools. :lol: The engine nacelles raise up clam shell like and there is a work stand that slides into receptacles at the engine so you can work on the engines. Luckily I was working over land or I would have lost a lot of tools in the water. A really neat airplane and one of my favorites too.
 
1018924M.jpg
 
The traditional blisters are better looking in my opinion, yes. When the aircraft was refurbished after its water-bombing carreer ended, it was originally intended for safaris/flight-seeing tours but original blisters were not available so they went with these.
Personnally I much prefer the non-military clipper bow though :)
 
And here are pictures of the rest of the planes we saw that day.

Festa Al Cel 2010

Feat. in no particular order, an F-16, a P-51, a Zero, a T-6, an Airbus A380, an Air Tractor, an A320 and an F-18. Among others.

8)
 
They are a BIG and IMPRESSIVE plane. Several years ago there was one based at the Geneseo Museum. It flew on a semi regular basis. I landed once at the museum strip taking my niece back to college (SUNY Geneseo). The right outrigger float was down and the left was up. I taxied the cub under the left wing ( my wing under its') Wish someone would have had a camera. A side note, my IA flew them in WWII. When I asked how they handled... he laughs and says: when in the open ocean, lots of arm muscles and leg muscles. He did mostly rescue missions. Said lots of noise when the props dig into a swell. I said holly "sh __t". He replied . .we were young . . . . . and sometimes stupid. Larry C.
 
You can't appreciate the size of the wing until you get underneath it. There is/was a PBY at Skagit County Airport, Washington that was in the process of being rebuilt. A gent who is in my EAA chapter was mech/engineer on these aircraft in WWII. He loved it. His squadron did anti submarine patrol air/sea rescue on the east coast of USA
 
Best and worst seat in the house is the engineer's seat in the pylon. :lol:
Seaworthy, do you know if Allen ever finished the wing at Skagit?
John
 
I was in Skagit in 2004. The wing was up against the side of a building (??)
memory vague. I remember it because I attempted to get inside the wing root. I couldn't believe the size of the wing.
 
A couple of years ago (1965) a 4 engined PBY visited Norwood Mass. Very impressive! It had two Lycoming GO-??? engines mounted outboard of the radial engines. There were two boats mounted on winches under the wings and a movie camera in the windshield. Got to see it fly. Cool! It belonged to a Dr. Bird. I wonder what ever happened to it?
 
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