Latest updates on progress of the Rathmines Catalina

“President
A Message from our President.

Hello all,
After a late night loading & an early morning start, ‘Our Girl’ finally reached her destination at our depot at Kilaben Bay. The last move before going to her final home at Rathmines.
This will make it easier for the restoration work, as the various parts of the plane are now at the one place.

We would never have been able to achieve this if it wasn’t for the generous support of several companies, including, ALKIRA BOATSHED (Phil & Margaret Heaney), DARACON (Dave Mingae – Peter Tighe & James), CAMERON CRANES (Rob Cameron & Scott) and NOVA TIMBER ( Chris Magin).
A big ‘thank you’ to those who also helped at the time, Terry, Ray ,Rob & Pee Wee, also our ‘film crew’, the Bates family. Big job for so few.

Please feel free to call in and have a look at the restoration work when you are in the area.
Cheers,
Penny.”

and

Project Co-Ordinator

“Our Girl” UpdateTime for another update from my perspective. There has been some really positive progress made in the refurbishment of “Our Girl”, some obvious and some not immediately obvious.

The rear portion of the fuselage has had the basic repairs completed and has been primed and we are now carrying out similar work from the main undercarriage area right to the nose. The area aft of here is where some re sheeting has to take place and some of this has to be rolled into shape before being riveted into place. Dave Swanson has been working on sourcing suitable material for this and other areas where any badly corroded areas have to be cut out.
Ray and Warren continue to work on the fuselage, concentrating on treating corrosion. Ray has been researching the preparation of any sections to be painted using a method similar to sand blasting but using Bi Carbonate of Soda using a special spray gun. The first trial using this method has taken place and Ray is happy it will speed up progress plus improve the finished product. The other major plus is that the process is totally safe to the operator and the environment.
I have been concentrating on corrosion and riveting repairs on the chine strips, this is basically where the upper fuselage and the hull join. Hopefully, Dave can also source new material to replace sections of the chine where required.
We are also looking forward to another volunteer joining us this week. Andrew is well experienced as a pilot and is looking forward to helping us any way he can. Another two volunteers should join us soon.
Kerry and Adrien have been quietly working away on the port engine, still with the plan to prepare it for static viewing on a stand. A basic amount of special tools have been sourced for this work, mostly from the USA. Kerry and Adrien continue to supplement this by making their own special tools, particularly for the removal of cylinder head fasteners. Progress on the removal of the cylinder heads is moving along really well and we have been very relieved to find the condition of cylinder liners, pistons and rings etc is amazingly good given the neglect they have suffered.
One final item, when a major inspection hatch on the front of the lower tail was removed for repair, we found it had been autographed by two people during a previous repair in 1994. See attached photo.

That’s about it for now. No doubt some of you would know that the relocation of the fuselage was successfully carried out in early June, therefore we now have all the components and the volunteers in one place. Should make for much better progress.

Best Wishes,
Terry
Project Co-Ordinator”