Carmium, your objection is well taken. The snide remark was unnecessary. Probably sparked by my memories as a child watching the Cats and Mariners, still in active service, flying out of San Juan Naval Station in the late '40s. One Christmas they had Santa in a PBY, sitting by an open blister tossing little parachutes with bags of candy to the kids as they circled LOW over the base. We were thrilled and I'll never forget it. At least it's a decent nose job and, more important, it's still flying!
@bearbon2 People usually buy these things to work with, Bear. Flying fisherman to northern lakes, cargo service, firefighting, etc. Not everyone is after a restored warbird, and most of these were altered as soon as they were sold by the military, so the current owner is very unlikely to be responsible for the civvy conversion. Don't snark at people you don't know when you don't know the situation. (And BTW, I'd love to see a WW2 restoration of one of these, too.)
Sexiest aircraft alive, if I had the money I'd get one of these puppies, throw two turbine in it and just flew her everywhere. Such a pity they are endangered as hell now :(
Carmium, your objection is well taken. The snide remark was unnecessary. Probably sparked by my memories as a child watching the Cats and Mariners, still in active service, flying out of San Juan Naval Station in the late '40s. One Christmas they had Santa in a PBY, sitting by an open blister tossing little parachutes with bags of candy to the kids as they circled LOW over the base. We were thrilled and I'll never forget it. At least it's a decent nose job and, more important, it's still flying!
bearbon2 4 months ago
And where's the nose turret?! It's sad to see these proud old flying boats butchered up by people with more money than brains.
bearbon2 6 months ago
@bearbon2 People usually buy these things to work with, Bear. Flying fisherman to northern lakes, cargo service, firefighting, etc. Not everyone is after a restored warbird, and most of these were altered as soon as they were sold by the military, so the current owner is very unlikely to be responsible for the civvy conversion. Don't snark at people you don't know when you don't know the situation. (And BTW, I'd love to see a WW2 restoration of one of these, too.)
carmium 4 months ago
Whaaaat? Where's the big bubble wondows at the back?
AVMamfortas 10 months ago
Sexiest aircraft alive, if I had the money I'd get one of these puppies, throw two turbine in it and just flew her everywhere. Such a pity they are endangered as hell now :(
GreatWhite85 11 months ago
I don't know why, but I've always thought that the Cat looks as pretty taxiing as it does in the air.
barkon 1 year ago
Where was this? Nanaimo had a similar-looking Cat/Canso there until the Brits bought her and took her over.
SenorSpode 1 year ago
@SenorSpode akshully they didnt. I was in Nanaimo in August and it was still there.
zandernerf 1 year ago
@zandernerf OK, that must've been another Catalina that passed through that went to the UK. Thanks for the heads-up.
SenorSpode 1 year ago