Saturday, May 24, 2008


Big Cats

Ads spent the day rostered on at Kiwi Classic Flyers and he rang me in big excitement to tell me that the Catalina was flying in at 11am and he hoped he could get a look inside, seeing as how he is part of the Catalina hulk restoration project team at Classic Flyers.

This is the one they are working on as a static display in the museum



Well, he got to crawl all over the thing and had an absolute ball. He was gobsmacked when the pilot got out and was a woman. I said "chicks fly planes too, buddy" he said "yeah, but a Catalina??".

Yeah, baby - a Catalina.

This one. It is currently the only air worthy PBY-5A in Australasia and there aren't many left in the world.



Ain't she beautiful?

1 comment:

Flattie said...

During WW11, they were renowned for the amount of time that they could stay in the air. It was said as a standing joke that there was 3 rates of pay for Cat crew. Those over 21, those under 21 & those who turned 21 during the flight.


Gorgiamus allos subjectatos nunc - We gladly feast on those who would subdue us ...