Allright, this one is no quiz, as I do not know the answer myself. Having seen the photos of the Cat at North Weald being coaxed into life again, I dug into my stacks of old photos and came up with these two. These photos were taken by me at the Eindhoven airfield in the Netherlands, sometime around 1990/91 I think. The Cat in question was parked there for quite some time, and I always wondered what has happened to it. My notes on the back say that it was registered as C-FIZO at the time.
From the colourscheme it looks like a twin of the one at North Weald, and I recall having seen more Cats in these colours on photos in a magazine once, but this one was never amongst them. Anybody with an idea?
By: JDK - 6th May 2004 at 10:33
Interesting…
Bump.
By: ageorge - 3rd May 2004 at 21:28
Welcome to the Forum Chuck 🙂
By: Cat Driver - 3rd May 2004 at 20:25
The Cat at North Weald was bought by Avalon Aviation in the summer of 1974 its Canadian regstration was CF-HNH as I recall.
I was chief pilot for Avalon at the time and only flew it for ten minutes as we had an engine failure just shortly after takeoff and I never did get to fly it again.
I just spent a week in North Weald with the Edwards Brothers preparing it for a ferry flight to Israel.
We got to the point of engine runs and one session of taxi and high speed runs down the runway, water in the fuel resulted in the right engine quitting and we parked it for the day to do further work on it.
The owner for what ever reason began to make unreasonable demands with regard to how the airplane was to be tested and flown and I was not prepared to accept his demands or his threat to get another pilot for the flight so I wished him all the best and returned to Canada…………….unpaid ……
When I left the aircraft it was not airworthy for even a test flight in my opinion.
Chuck Ellsworth
By: YakRider - 30th April 2004 at 19:56
The North Weald Cat has Avalon Aviation logos overpainted in orange, so you are most probably right.
YR
By: cestrian - 30th April 2004 at 19:35
The 2 Cats were both operated by Avalon Aviation up to 1988.It may be their colour scheme?
By: Archer - 30th April 2004 at 19:28
Funnily enough I’ve always interpreted that badge in a different way. In the second photo she’s parked in front of a hangar that housed a company called Fokker Services Eindhoven. Now they may not have been there yet when the Cat was parked there, but I’ve always assumed that they stuck that badge on the aircraft.
From the photos it is clear though that she carries the same colours as the North Weald Cat. Does anybody know what company once operated both these two aircraft and perhaps a few more too?
By: cestrian - 30th April 2004 at 18:51
Archer,sorry I don’t know what Flight Support Europe used her for or even if she flew in the 2 years they had her.The full history of the aircraft is in Warbirds Directory.I’ve just noticed she has a FSE badge on her forward fuselage
By: Archer - 30th April 2004 at 16:49
Thanks for that Cestrian! Do you have any idea what FSE used her for? Although I’ve spent a lot of time around Eindhoven airfield it was all after the Cat had left so I never got to hear the story.
Edit: found out where she is now: http://www.luftfart.museum.no/Engelsk/Exhibitions/PBY-5A.htm
By: cestrian - 30th April 2004 at 12:40
C-FIZO is Bu46645.Operated by Flight Support Europe Einhoven for 2 years,delivered 28/9/1989.Sometime in 1991 it went to the Norwegian Air Force Museum at Gardemoen for restoration,now painted as FP535/X.She is now displayed at the museum in Bodo
Dave
By: Marauder - 30th April 2004 at 11:44
Think it went to Norway/Denmark – don’t know status. It was either ex ‘Flying Firemen’ or one of the Provincial Government Cats.
By: Last Lightning - 30th April 2004 at 11:15
I dont know the answers either but the colour scheme suggests that it was used as a fire fighter so perhaps we can trace the company that owned them then go from their.
By: JDK - 30th April 2004 at 11:11
Bump
I don’t know – any Cat lovers who do?
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April 29, 2004 at 7:32 pm