I thought I saw Tanker 708 C-FUAW in CYYJ there the other day while landing 27. Just recently started flying in there so not to sure how long she's been there or what her story is now. First bird to legitimately pay me so a bit of nostalgia on my part.

The plan is to start a Catalina society with it and use it in airshows and training for those who can afford it.

Excellent! Let me know where to sign up.

And another story (addressed earlier on this forum):

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/Alb ... story.html

So how much does a PBY go for an hour? I remember GFT having a PBY they offered waterbomber training on, but it never seemed to be in operation.

When I was flying the Dutch Cat in Holland our hourly cost was around 3500 euros per hour and that was in 2005.

So basically looking $7-8000 an hour, hmmmm sounds like you can run a small 703 for that much!

This is one mans labour of love not a rich guys toy. I know he hopes interested folks will contribute volunteer labour and he will be able to offset a portion of the costs with airshow appearances and perhaps movie work. I expect the actual cost to pilots interested in flying her will not be cheap but doable for the average guy....... Anyway I sure hope so as a Canso type rating is on my bucket list

To start you will burn around 400 liters of fuel per hour during training.

Oh, and around 5 to 10 liters of oil.

The Dutch Cat was used for sight seeing flights and all the pilots paid 10,000 euros for their type ratings.

Then they flew enough line training to get 50 water landings with passengers naturally all the flying they did was as volunteers with no pay.

From there they were qualified as captains.

In three years I finished six pilots to captain status.

There is also a Cat society in New Zealand that does offer sightseeing flights. I belive they operate their a/c from water. I met a fellow from there this summer at an airshow, and he said they can carry around 8-9 people(if I remember correctly.) The view from the blisters is amazing. You can imagine these aircraft flying over the pacific for over 14hours during the war.

Cat, how was the single engine handling of the PBY? I understand the critical engine factor, but wanted to know in general as the engines are pretty close to the centreline of the aircraft.

Thanks,

Ahhh Tanker 708 Great Plane! I did 2 summers bombing on her. Built like a tank, fly's like a pig (till you get used to her). There Still my favorite planes!

What's goin on with former Quebec Gov. C-FPQM (Tanker 714) that was last seen on the Rock.

Here's the website for Tanker 708's new owners. Many of the people involved are former Flying Fireman guys.

http://www.pbycatalina.com/

Trevor

Nice aircraft, Dyson.
Keep her in shape.
YVC
SMcL.