Pby Nose Turret For Sale Skin And Patch

RCMPA via Phil Buckley).

Rathmines Park, nestled beside Lake Macquarie in New South Wales was once home to the largest RAAF flying boat base.

As such, the local community wished to commemorate their storied past, with an appropriate aircraft at the focal point of their efforts.

And thus they formed the Rathmines Catalina Memorial Park Association (RCMPA).

In 2013, they found PBY-5A Catalina Bu.48412 on the auction site e-Bay of all places.

The aircraft had been rotting away outside for the best part of two decades at San Juan International airport in Puerto Rico.

Just getting the hulk to Australia was a massive undertaking, but the team has worked miracles on a shoestring budget (please see HERE for Phil Buckleys previous report).

They have saved this Catalina from almost certain scrapping, and made considerable progress since she arrived.

We thought our readers would be interested to see what they have been up to since WarbirdsNews last visit.

The youngest volunteer is 60years of age and oldest is in their 80s.

As of April 2016, the volunteer team is making progress across the whole aircraft, bringing a radical change from the condition in which it arrived into the warbird it has become.

At the current time, the projects aims are to ensure the Catalina is fully inspected; that all corrosion is removed as best as possible; to repaint the airframe externally.

In the longer term, they want to work on upgrading the internal fuselage with fit outs and restored items to WWII standard.

In 2016, the team added to this setup by welding on beams to widen the base.

They have added vertical beams which incorporate an access walkway and support frames to erect a shade cloth over the fuselage, providing protection from sun, rain and wind for the restoration team.

Nova Timber, a local timber company, has supplied all the timber needed for the walkway area which will enable better fuselage restoration access and other work to be undertaken.

Many lower sections of the hull required replacing due to corrosion.

Pby Nose Turret For Sale Skin And Patch

The rear, right-hand side of the fuselage has had extensive re-sheeting of corroded skin and patch repairs.

The front right nose panel has also received attention, and will eventually re-acquire the bomb aimer and nose turret positions of wartime Catalinas.

The cockpit instrument panel has been removed, stripped and will be restored.

The cockpit canopy framing has also been removed and is under refurbishment.

Unknown to many, the interior skins were originally lined with linseed oil-soaked cloth to act as corrosion barrier.