Abandoned PBY-5A seaplane | FerrariChat

Abandoned PBY-5A seaplane

Discussion in 'Aviation Chat' started by Wade, Jul 26, 2010.

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  1. Wade

    Wade Three Time F1 World Champ Owner

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  2. nathandarby67

    nathandarby67 F1 Veteran Owner

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    Ehhh, a little Bondo and she'll be good as new!

    And maybe a roll of duct tape.
     
  3. Aedo

    Aedo F1 Rookie

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  4. BoxerCrazy

    BoxerCrazy Formula Junior

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    luv the Catalina....sure would be nice as a private plane!!!!!



    doug
     
  5. chris_columbia

    chris_columbia Formula Junior Silver Subscribed

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    Hugh Hefner had one in the 60's. It had couches/beds under the rear machine blisters. I imagine you could got just about anywhere. Slowly.
     
  6. 4re Nut

    4re Nut F1 World Champ

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    Wow. Interesting story and website.
     
  7. Bob Parks

    Bob Parks F1 Veteran Consultant

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    That's sad to see. I have vivid memories of a PBY5 flying all night up and down the eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay helping us to find two crew members who bailed out of a B-17 that had been struck by lightning during a violent August thunder storm in 1945. The Catalina flew in and out of the boiling clouds, lightning, and heavy rain literally ALL NIGHT dropping flares at minimum altitude. It was a display of Navy airmanship and the incredible duration of that old plodding airplane. We started searching around midnite near the mouth of the York River and he didn't leave until about 0900 the next morning which was only about 40% of the duration that it was capable of. That was the eeriest apparition that I ever saw as the airplane sometimes flew on the near side of the light from the flares and it's image was projected huge on the mist and clouds between the airplane and us on shore. The bright flashes of lightning only added to the ghostly sights that we were seeing.
    We found the bodies of the two crew members in the water a week later
     
  8. lmunz22

    lmunz22 Formula 3

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    On one hand, it's sad to see it relegated to rotting away in the dessert. On the other hand, the story behind it and the history it marks is amazing.
     
  9. Jedi

    Jedi Moderator Moderator Lifetime Rossa Owner

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    As always, wonderful detail Bob. Great stuff that...

    Jedi
     
  10. Crawler

    Crawler F1 Veteran

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    Fascinating story of an airborne pleasure cruise turning into a nightmare. I wonder whether any photos exist of the plane in its "luxury flying yacht" heyday.
     
  11. Crawler

    Crawler F1 Veteran

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    Last edited by a moderator: Jul 30, 2010
  12. donv

    donv Two Time F1 World Champ Owner Rossa Subscribed

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  13. BoxerCrazy

    BoxerCrazy Formula Junior

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  14. Bob Parks

    Bob Parks F1 Veteran Consultant

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    Thanks, I'll never forget that night tramping around in the pouring rain in the swamps bordering the bay. It didn't matter where we stepped or fell in the dark,it was wet one way or another. We were retracing grounds that were fought over in the Revolution and the Civil War but were still wild in 1945. We flushed out bears and deer in some areas and saw maybe two lights from houses. We spent a week out there searching the shore in 90 deg. heat and eventually found those for whom we were searching, still in their parachutes and Mae Wests. The airplane, by the way, had the No. 1 engine knocked out and all the radar wiring burned out and the instruments. It was a " Mickey Ship" and full of elex. The pilot landed at night in a rain storm by seat of the pants feel minus his navigator and bomb aimer.
     
  15. Wade

    Wade Three Time F1 World Champ Owner

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    Great info, thanks for the links.
     
  16. teak360

    teak360 F1 World Champ

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    What images you conjured up with that story! I'm sorry your search results were as they were.
     
  17. Bob Parks

    Bob Parks F1 Veteran Consultant

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    Yeah, that wasn't the best week I ever spent. We knew that we had found them on the shoreline when we were still 600 yards away. Excuse my error. I meant to say 600 feet, 200 yards. The breeze was blowing toward us.
     
    Last edited: Jul 31, 2010
  18. teak360

    teak360 F1 World Champ

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    What images you conjured up with that story! I'm sorry your search results were as they were.
     
  19. Bob Parks

    Bob Parks F1 Veteran Consultant

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    I pulled up the York River area on Google Earth to see if I could locate where we made our search and I think that I did. The bonus to my digging was to scroll down to Langley Field and I saw that my old barracks and most of the original buildings are still there as well as the low speed and high speed wind tunnels and I think the spin test tunnel that was near our barracks. The dirigible hangar is gone, however.
    The ramp has been expanded and the B-17's and B-24's have been replaced by F-15's. I stared at that for an hour.
     
  20. NORTY

    NORTY Formula Junior

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    Within the PBY designation, what does the "Y" stand for?
     
  21. TooTall

    TooTall Karting

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    "Y" was the manufacturer code designation for Consolidated Aircraft. So PBY stood for Patrol Bomber Consolidated. "D" was for Douglas, "F" for Grumman, "U" for Vought, etc.
     
  22. thecarreaper

    thecarreaper F1 World Champ Silver Subscribed

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  23. Wade

    Wade Three Time F1 World Champ Owner

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    It should show F-22's by now and, unfortunately, the big wind tunnel is slated for dismantling...

    http://www.airspacemag.com/history-of-flight/Last-Breath.html
     
  24. donv

    donv Two Time F1 World Champ Owner Rossa Subscribed

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    "Wash me?"

     
  25. Bob Parks

    Bob Parks F1 Veteran Consultant

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    Wade, thanks for the update on the demise of the wind tunnel, sad. There was also a wind tunnel on the eastern edge of the base that was driven by huge electric motors. They could only run it at night after 2400 because of the huge draw-down of power. If we were on the line when they started them the ground would hum and vibrate long before we could hear the groan of the motors and the roar of the blades. We saw the 1/2 size wind tunnel model vertical fin and horizontal stab of the Hughes H-1 flying boat being brought in to run in the full-size tunnel. At the time we thought that it was a full sized airplane since it was over 20 feet tall.
     

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