PBY at Old Warden

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Bomber_12th

SOH-CM-2025
This past Sunday was the first flying event of the year at Old Warden, home of the Shuttleworth Collection. One of the star visitors was the Duxford-based Plane Sailing PBY Catalina, "Miss Pick Up". Really never done before, having a warbird of its size actually operate from the grass at Old Warden, the aircraft wasn't just staged out of Duxford for flyovers, it actually landed at Old Warden and operated in/out of the field (as did the Aces High C-47!). Unusual, but really quite neat to see - I just had to recreate it a bit in FSX. Lightly loaded for just typical local operation, it actually doesn't use much runway at all. Airplane by Aerosoft, repaint by Jan Kees, scenery by ORBX.

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Nice screenshots John :encouragement: I don't know whether you are already aware but the Dutch Catalina PH-PBY has been sold to the Collins Foundation and will be flown to the US later this year.

The reason why it is sold is quite complex. But the combination of a change in regulations due to which it was not longer possible to fly commercial flights, the increasing age of the group qualified former Navy technician and the lack of support of the Royal Dutch Navy made in impossible to keep the aircraft in flying condition in the Netherlands.

The PH-PBY is the oldest flying PBY Catalina and has a remarkable history:

Consolidated PBY-5A PH-PBY s/n 300, was originally delivered to the U. S. Navy at Naval Air Station Norfolk (VA) as BuNo. 2459 on December 23, 1941. Assigned to VP-73, the aircraft was given the Squadron code 73-P-9. Five days after arriving, this aircraft along with four others were shipped to Iceland, arriving between January 12-16, 1942 at Fleet Air Base Reykjavik. On Febraury 1, 1942, 73-P-9 flew its first of many operational sorties consisting mainly of convoy escort and iceberg patrols in the area between Iceland and Greenland, known as the Denmark Straits. In August of 1942, the German Kriegsmarine submarines began in earnest attacking North Atlantic convoys in groups, known as ‘Wolfpacks”. The PBY’s on duty began flying “Hvalfjord Sweeps”, during which they were on the prowl for German submarines or surface vessels.

[FONT=&quot]PBY 73-P-9 had her first success on August 20, 1942 while being flown by Lt. Robert B. Hopggod and crew while protecting British Task Force SN-73. The German sub tender U-Boat U-464 “Milchkuh” was spotted 175 NM south of Hofn, Iceland and attacked, causing lethal damage which necessitated scuttling by the crew.[/FONT][FONT=&quot]The second success for 73-P-9 was two months later, October 5, 1942, while under the command of Chief Pilot M. Luke and crew. Flying cover for convoy HX-209, U-Boat U582 was spotted 400 miles south of Iceland. A low-level attack was commenced on the surfaced U-Boat. Within seconds, the U-Boat disappeared and a large oil slick was observed. The aircraft then transferred to VP-84 and became 84-P-9. On April 28, 1943, while flown by Lt. Roy Neff and crew, they attacked U-Boat U-528, heavily damaging it and necessitating a return to France for repairs. However, enroute, the crippled sub was found by British Coastal Command and sunk.[/FONT][FONT=&quot]The final major action for 84-P-9 was June 24, 1943, while being flown by Lts. Joseph W. Beach and Albert M. Singluff. U-Boat U-200 was spotted and attacked. Dropping depth charges, they were unsuccessful in their first attempt. The crew of U-200 fiercely defended their boat with machine-gun fire, keeping the PBY at a distance. However, the crew on 84-P-9 had one last option, a “Fidol” homing torpedo. Within fifty seconds of the launch, U-200 was sunk. By the end of August 1943, 84-P-9 completed its last operational sortie and was flown to NAS Quonset Point where it became part of the inventory of Fleet Air Wing 7. In the months that followed, 84-P-9 served at NAS Anacostia, Gainesville, and Pensacola, finally ending up at Coast Guard Station Elizabeth City in May 1945. It was struck off charge on October 31, 1945.

Following WWII, PBY 84-P-9 became N18446 in September 1946 and was sold to Rio Ten Airways, who operated it for one year. It was then sold to California Maritime Airways in December 1947 and was operated by them until 1949. From there, the aircraft passed through numerous owners to include Aero Corp. of Atlanta, R. Paul Weesner & George Lewis, Paramount Aquarium of Miami, Indamer Corporation, and W. Clayton Lemon of Roanoke, Virginia. Lemon sold N18446 to Transair Ltd., Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada in October 1953, where it became CF-HHR. Transair operated CF-HHR until 1969, when it was sold to Field Aviation of Calgary. The aircraft was converted to water bomber configuration and flew it as such until 1972 until purchased by Avalon Aviation Ltd., of Red Deer, Alberta, Canada. Avalon used the aircraft extensively, even sending it to Chile in 1975 to help fight the vast forest fires they were experiencing. In 1979, the aircraft was then stationed at Perry Sound, Ontario, Canada under the new Canadian registration C-FHHR as Tanker #3 and later as Tanker #793. It was removed from service in 1986 and stored, until purchased on February 28, 1995 by the Dutch Cat Air Foundation.

After purchase, C-FHHR was made ready for the ferry flight to the Netherlands. The water tanks were removed and replaced with sixteen passenger seats, eight in the front cabin and eight in the rear. The aircraft was repainted as Royal Netherlands Navy Y-74 in olive drab with orange triangle national insignias, as were carried during the Japanese invasion of the Netherland Indies in 1942. First flight was April 1, 1995. Starting May 9, 1995, the ferry flight commenced and after a refuel at North Weald in the U.K., C-FHHR arrived in Rotterdam. Total time for the trip was five days. Registration was once again changed to N27311, registered to Western Aviation Maintenance in Mesa, Arizona, but was still operated by Cat Air. Early in 1997, reservation was made for a Dutch registration, PH-PBY, and was granted on October 13 of the same year. By then, it was obvious that PH-PBY was in need of a full restoration. The Stichting Neptune Association, a volunteer organization based at Valkenburg NAS, offered to help. On May 11, 1999, PH-PBY touched down at this same station where PBY’s of the Royal Netherlands Navy were based during the 1950’s. There, SNA volunteers, supported by the RNN, managed to perform a complete restoration in four years. On August 4, 2004, PH-PBY made her first post-restoration flight now painted in post-war silver Netherlands Navy paint scheme carrying the code “16-218”.

Last year it was sold, however after engine problems one of the engines needed to be replaced before preparations could start for the transfer. While it was in repair I was able to visit the hangar and took pictures of every inch from the Catalina. Below the a short movie from the farewell flight which was flown on 5 May 2019.

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Nice pics all around. Thanks for sharing the personal photos Jankees. I found the picture of the engine disconcerting at first because my brain is used to looking out of a side window to see the engine, not the top window. Once I got my bearing my brain wasn't so confused by the photo. It's very cool that you and your daughter were able to fly in it.

Ken
 
Nicely done John! :applause:

A few more R/W pics can be found here https://twitter.com/IndoPilot

Matt (IndoPilot) is one of the pilots on the PBY.

Huub, you were lucky indeed. When we were in the Somme in 2016 I had hoped to add a side-trip to Lelystad but was unable to book seats on the Canso so we opted for extra time en France. Alas, I'll now have to try to get a ride on this side of the pond in future.

Catalinas were part of my youth. In the 50's & 60's we had Wheeler, World Wide Airlines and Nordair birds operating regularly at Dorval and I got to see PH-PBY/CF-HHR the day she was rolled out of the Field hangar after conversion. After the re-purposing as tankers, there were numerous Quebec, Ontario and Saskatchewan Gov't Cansos in my viewfinder.

Gray eagle, that may be the only one found in a 'thread' search, but you'll find Jankees' paints in his sections of the Warbirds library (search keyword "Catalina" AND username "Jankees" and it will give you two pages). G-PBYA is here: http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/local_links.php?action=jump&catid=228&id=23946
 
I don't know whether you are already aware but the Dutch Catalina PH-PBY has been sold to the Collins Foundation and will be flown to the US later this year.
Click to expand...


So I work for the Collings Foundation, in the office at least. I was around when we got word that we got the PBY. Part of me is ecstatic that we are getting it and sad that the Netherlands is losing this wonderful piece of history.

PH-PBY will be restored to her wartime configuration in paint and looks. Since she does have an incredible history, she will return to her markings as a member of VP-84, I believe, and will serve here in the states educating generations to come about how we fought the U-boat peril.
 
srgalahad said:
Gray eagle, that may be the only one found in a 'thread' search, but you'll find Jankees' paints in his sections of the Warbirds library (search keyword "Catalina" AND username "Jankees" and it will give you two pages). G-PBYA is here: http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/local_links.php?action=jump&catid=228&id=23946
Click to expand...

Thanks, it was in his Civilian section, I was in his Military section.


Edit: I had a heck of a time getting this PBY Livery to show in the P3D menu so I re examined the contents of the read me and read and reread over and over the
entry for this livery that goes in the appropriate aircraft.cfg folder.
Long story short.
"Copy and paste the following text into the aircraft.cfg file inside the Aerosoft_PBY-5_Mil"
I did that, and it wasn't visible till I installed the texture to the Aerosoft_PBY-5A_Civ folder (this folder is only one with the Dutch model)
When I did that, everything was fine. Just a FYI.....

[fltsim.x]
title=PBY-5A_Civil_G-PBYA
sim=PBY5A_MIL
model=Dutch
 
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