October 2^nd 2011 saw our first Catalina Taxi Ride at Duxford Airfield, our home base. On what turned out to be a glorious early-Autumn day, the event seems to have been a resounding success for those involved and is likely to be repeated. Here is a report on what took place.


All our happy Taxi Ride passengers and guests in the Comet Room at Duxford – and they hadn’t even seen the Catalina at that point!
Photo: David Legg

You can now get hold of Official Catalina Society Apparel!



Choose you own colours, design, size:

• Men's, Women's and Children's T-shirts
• Tote Bags
• Beanie's
• Umbrella's
• Baseball Caps
• Mugs
• Polo Shirts
• Hoodies
• Duffel Bags
• Tie's

We've just set up our new Facebook Catalina Society Page!


Visit our page directly on Facebook here!

We hope you enjoy using it!

PBY Catalina T-shirts available from Spreadshirt

• Available in 19 different colours
• For Men & Women
  
• Classic T-Shirt Classic-cut
  
• 100% cotton
• SM, M, L, XL sizes

• Form-fitting t-shirt for women
• 100% cotton
• SM, M, L, XL sizes

Events around the world continue to keep me busy updating individual Catalina histories and once again there is no shortage of things to report on in this edition.

Firstly, some European news.  The US-registered, former Royal Canadian Air Force Canso A N9767 has been carrying out some flying this year but things have not gone entirely to plan!  It suffered a nose-wheel collapse at Dijon on July 3^rd after its gear actuator broke but it did manage to appear at the Sion air show in Switzerland in September after spending some time at Lausanne the month before.  It then flew across to Northern Ireland to take part in the Fermanagh Seaplane Festival alongside our own Catalina in late-September.  Unfortunately, N9767's first foray out onto the water ended in some embarrassment for the crew and the end of her active participation in the event.  After a somewhat fast approach, a landing was successfully pulled off after which the crew shut down both engines without first securing the aircraft to a buoy.  Almost inevitably, this ended unhappily with the Cat' drifting back in the breeze until its reverse progress was brought to a halt by a yacht's mast!  Eventually, after a long delay, N9767 finally flew back to France on December 2^nd .


Canso A N9767 at the Fermanagh event this Summer after its argument with a yacht.  The elevator damage is clearly evident

Meanwhile, the news from Holland is scarcely better.  PBY-5A Catalina PH-PBY has remained grounded at Lelystad for the second season in succession due to various administrative and engineering issues.  This has meant that it has not been able to carry out passenger rides as in previous years.  According to its operators, November 15^th marks PH-PBY's 70^th birthday and the Dutch Friends of the Catalina were planning to mark the occasion with a gathering at its base although they will no doubt be very disappointed that this anniversary will not be a flying one.  Further enquiries about this celebration event brought no response from the organisers.  As BuAer2459 of the US Navy, PH-PBY was credited with destroying no less than 3 U-boats.

Photo: David Legg

Get yourself a seat on the Catalina & feel the thrill of 2,400 hp of Pratt & Whitney radial engines – a unique and exclusive opportunity to experience the sights, smells and sounds of a World War II flying boat with the engines running as you taxi down the runway...

DUXFORD, SUNDAY OCTOBER 2ND 2011

• Book now! Only 24 tickets available – first come first served.
• Each participant receives a guided tour of the aircraft & a full safety briefing from our experienced crew.
• You will be on board as the engines are started & take part in high power engine run-ups.
• The aircraft will line up on the threshold and taxi down the runway.
• Enjoy a unique view of Duxford from our observation blisters & see the pilots at the controls.

This exciting event also includes a full days programme at our home base of Duxford, all included in the cost of the taxi ride. This will feature -

• A delicious lunch in the Museum’s new Airspace conference facilities.
• An illustrated presentation about Catalinas from our historian David Legg.
• Pilots and crew will be on hand all day to “talk PBYs” & answer your questions.
• You will receive a certificate as a reminder of your experience.
• Admission to the IWM Duxford is also included in the price so you are free to explore the Museum’s world famous collection during the day.

How to book

To book please e-mail David Legg at here or call 07774 026 045. Full details and itinerary will be supplied two weeks in advance of the event.

The ticket price for the Taxi Ride Day is only Ł150. Included in the cost is one years membership of the Catalina Society.

Catalina Society members will benefit from a lower rate of GBP 135, and current Society members are also welcome to invite family or guests at this discounted rate. (Society membership is GBP 15 per year – more details here.

This will be our first Catalina Taxi Ride Day - the aim of the day is to provide you with a unique experience and raise funds towards the future upkeep of our Catalina. You will help us to keep our wonderful aircraft in airworthy condition and we look forward to welcoming you at Duxford.

Whilst it is a dream of many to fly in a Catalina, we are unable to carry paying passengers in the air, so we are offering you the next best thing... Therefore, please note that this is a taxi ride, and not a flight.

There is no imminent danger of this column being discontinued as the world's surviving population of Catalinas continues to generate news.  Indeed, two items in the last issue were out of date by the time they appeared so I start with updates related to those aircraft.  One word of explanation - when I describe the individual Catalinas and Cansos etc in these news items, I invariably use the designation that was assigned to the aircraft when it was built.  This provides a consistency of approach but it does not necessarily tally with the way that the aircraft is described by the authorities in the register of the country of registration.

Not long after the Dutch PBY-5A PH-PBY returned the airworthy Catalina population in Europe to two last year (I'm not counting N423RS at North Weald at present), the number was further increased to three when, on a snowy December 22^nd, Canso A N9767 was ferried the short distance from its long-term home at Paris-Orly to its new base at Melun-Villaroche.  Following delays due to the adverse weather, N9767 was finally flown out of Orly at 13.00 hours UTC on December 22^nd with Chris Gozzienne at the controls, assisted by L Blaise and B Therbault.  It had not previously flown for many years although it had been looked after well.  The project to return the aircraft to the skies was helped by well-known Catalina engineering specialist Mark Edwards/Air Venture Ltd and was in part necessitated by the need to vacate the airport at Orly.  The Canso, previously owned by Franklin Devaux, is currently registered to Southern Aircraft Consultancy Inc Trustee (a UK-based company that specialises in providing Individual Trust Agreements to non US citizens to enable them to legally register their aircraft on the American "N" register) but the aircraft is in fact owned by the Paris-based Catalina Air Trust.  Although the US registration N9767, based on its original RCAF serial 9767, had been reserved for sometime, it was only formally taken up on November 19^th 2010 having been cancelled from the Canadian register (as C-FCRR) back in October 2005.  Although details are sparse, it has been announced that N9767 will be repainted in its original RCAF camouflage scheme and air display bookings will be sought.


Photo: Jacques Guillem

N9767 gets airborne for the first time in many years from a snowy Orly's runway on December 22^nd, destination Melun-Villaroche

As usual, The Catalina News brings readers a round-up of what has been happening around the world to the surviving population of Catalinas and is adapted from the article with the same name in The Catalina News magazine, in this case the October 2010 edition.  On this occasion, there are two significant updates to the items that appeared in the magazine, these relating to C-FUAW in Canada and PH-PBY in Holland.



PH-PBY/'16-218 gets a warm welcome inside its new hangar at home base Lelystad after arriving from Laarbruch on October 12^th this year
Photo: John Redeker

Activity in the world of surviving Catalinas around the globe continues unabated and once again there is plenty to report, mostly of a positive nature although, as will be seen, some projects are badly in need of help!....

A magnificent photo of the long-dormant PBY-5A N423RS over Portsmouth Harbour during its first flight for many year on December 8th last year.
Photo: Mike Perkin

We’ll start in Australia where, at Bankstown, NSW, The Catalina Flying Memorial Ltd continues to work on their PBY-6A VH-CAT which was ferried there from Portugal back in November/December 2008. President of the Memorial, Phil Dulhunty, says that the project to get VH-CAT back in the air still needs help. When the ferry flight to Australia was undertaken, it was under US marks (N160AT) and with a US FAA ferry permit. It is proving difficult and expensive to obtain an Australian C of A in the Experimental Category as a warbird and some sponsors that had already come forward have ‘cried foul’ citing the ‘global economic downturn’ as their reason. The project is therefore desperate for other sponsors and donations. Meanwhile a great team of volunteers continues to work on the aircraft, some of whom worked on flying boats at the original Rathmines flying boat base on Lake Macquarie in the old days.