The Catalina Chronicles : Volume 3
President's Message: December, 1997
Hello! It has been a while since we sent out a newsletter, and now we have news we simply must share with you, our supporters, and other interested folks!!
Two years ago, the Foundation’s Board of Directors found themselves going in too many disparate directions. It was decided to focus our activities to increase our history gathering and museum development more in alignment with our funding levels. It was resolved to create a website on the internet and develop a cyberspace museum for the world to enjoy until it could be joined by its physical counterpart. This was accomplished in February of this year; our website is located at www.pbycat.org.
The response from the website has been truly exciting. We are now in e-mail contact with friends all over the world telling us about their countries’ history of the PBY Catalina, and the number of people visiting our website increases weekly! Let’s face it, people just don’t fall into our website. They come looking for information about the PBY Catalina.
History of the PBY-6A:
#64017 moved off the production line at Consolidated Aircraft Corporation’s New Orleans, Louisiana facility sometime in July, 1945. It was delivered to the US Navy at Terminal Island, California, sent to VPB-100 in Hawaii and then on to the Philippines as part of VPB-71. By January, 1946, the aircraft was back in Hawaii as part of Fleet Air Wing 2 and then based at NAS Alameda, California. Continued transfers took it to the Naval Aircraft Factory in Philadelphia; Naval Air Reserve, Atlanta, Georgia; Naval Air Reserve, Squantum, Massachusetts; NAS San Diego, California; Boeing Plant in Seattle for overhaul; Naval Air Reserve, NAS Niagara Falls, New York; and finally storage and eventual sale at Litchfield Park, Arizona.
Its civilian history is a little unclear but we have found the following: It was first registered in the US as N2846D and N5555H. It was also used during the 60’s and 70’s as a firebomber in France for the Protective Civile as the “Green Pelican” or F-ZBAV. The PBY then had a period of open storage at St. Jean, Quebec, Canada. She languished in rapidly fading Protection Civile colors with Canadian registration C-FHNH on the tail. Her engines were removed and her nose was weighted down with concrete blocks. Photos taken at the time show that the blisters were still in place although they were subsequently removed. She was later sold to Avalon Aviation and C-FHNH began work in Norway as a firebomber based at Fornebu. Subsequently stored at East Midlands and Exeter airports in 1985, she was sold to Aces High and has been registered on both British
and American registers as G-BFPY and N212DM respectively.
| Individual | Corporate | |
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| Platinum | $1,000 | $10,000 |
| Golden | 500 | 5,000 |
| Silver | 250 | 2,500 |
| Bronze | 100 | 1,000 |
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