Saw it at West Malling airshow 88or89.
Awesome sight . Shame they didn’t do a pass with the Catalina, but still cool

It was a great shame and a missed opportunity. Plane Sailing’s Catalina G-BLSC took off from West Malling and flew in formation with the Sunderland for about 25 – 30 mins while Arthur Gibson took air-to-airs from his Aztec over the Weald of Kent but then landed back at the airfield before the Sunderland gave its lovely display. I was fortunate to be on board the Catalina and it was a wonderful experience to fly very close formation with the Short aircraft. The Catalina was flown by Paul Warren Wilson (captain) and Pete Treadaway (Co-pilot) whilst, if memory serves, the Sunderland was flown by Mike Searle and Ken Emmott.

The date was 28th August 1989.