Dutch Catalina flies again

What is the situation with a warbird registered in one country and making a trip to another for a show ?

That’s a different question, but basically as long as you’ve got a ‘normal’ CofA (Certificate of Airworthiness) you can fly an airplane anywhere, as long as you follow local rules (equipment, procedures and such). For airshow flying each country has its own rules regarding display authorisations and such which you will need to follow.

If you don’t have a ‘normal’ CofA then it gets complicated. The FAA ‘experimental’ category for example only allows flying over the USA within a set of rules, and if you want to go somewhere else you need to get special permissions from each country you overfly and land in. Expect more trouble if you wish to attend an airshow!

What is the situation with a warbird registered in one country and making a trip to another for a show ?

Well, it will be back in a few days, resprayed into full military livery. On the 30th this month, it will be rolled out while at the same moment a book on the Dutch Cats, and especially this Cat, will be available. I know it is in Dutch, but it has many, many pics in it, and is rather cheap, around 10 or 11 P.St or so.

BW Roger

Aah yes, I should of course point out that the above goes for a Stateside registered Cat. If you put one on another register, it is all dependent on whether the type has been registered there before, or whether the local CAA will accept the aircraft on the basis of its foreign type certification. A few years ago the Dutch CAA was totally against allowing foreign warbirds onto the Dutch register, but the Cat was actually the first to break through that barrier!

Thanks for that Archer; my funny feeling fully explained 😉

Don’t forget Daz (et al) that different countries have different requirements. The Dutch and the British are very careful (rightly so) while others have a less stringent requirement – not right & wrong, but different horses for different courses.

Cheers!

http://www.tidetech.com/fighterfactory/catalina.html

Formerly at North Weald until last summer

This particular Cat seems to be able to operate with its nose turret installed, I’ve looked up why and it turns out that this airplane is certified a bit different. Basically it boils down to this: during the 50’s and 60’s a number of companies have modified Cats for use on the civil register, and from this a number of different subtypes have evolved. Some of these were conversions to carry cargo only under CAR 4a rules, others were passenger conversions under CAR 3 and CAR 4a. NC9521C was one of the latter, and is still registered in the ‘normal’ category, as opposed to many warbirds which are registered as ‘experimental’, as a type ’28-5ACF’ (see here, search for ‘9521C’ ). Now you can look up the Type Certificate Data Sheet for this type (click here ) and this explains that this is a Cat which has been modified to carry passengers and cargo by Steward-Davis Incorporated, and the best part is that this specific modification actually allows the installation of the nose turret, provided that ‘the turret revolving mechanism is removed or made inoperative and the opening between the turret and the nose are faired over’ (page 4, A (2) ). Max operating weight is restricted to 27,000 pounds but at least your Cat will look like a true military specimen this way!

Compare the TCDS above to a few others, have a look here and type ‘PBY’ in the search box on the left.

Edit: just to add that this trick will only work on a Cat which has previously been ‘civilised’ to a config that allows the turret to be carried. If you restore a Cat which has never gone through this process, or change it to a configuration that doesn’t fall under the limitations of the TCDS you will probably end up in the ‘experimental’ category again.

Looking at the pics of the underside of the Catalina I can’t determine whether it still has it’s waterbombing doors installed or whether they have been reskinned, on the face of it they still seem to be there.
Was this the dark blue Dutch marked Cat that appeared at North Weald a few years back?

Ahh, that’s our friend from the movie Below, but I’m sure this was a different one…

I’ve got a funny feeling, though, that I’ve seen a photo somewhere of a warbird Cat with a nose turret! :confused:

Hmm, I hadn’t thought about the reasoning behind the lack of nose turrets yet, but JDK is on the right track I think. The nose of a Cat is pretty empty structurewise starting from the back of the instrument panel, and installing a nose turret in there means that you’re introducing a lot of options for strange airflows into the nose through and around the turret. While this just causes cold feet, bird hits in the same area might create larger problems as you might easily find a non-airworthy seagull or something similar around your feet. And then there’s a different story when we’re talking about water operations! The forces that are present when you operate the Cat from a water environment are pretty severe, as was demonstrated in the accident with Plane Sailing’s Super Cat a few years back. Introducing a fairly fragile structure like a turret in the nose severely increases the options for trouble if you ask me! Obviously because of this the CAA/FAA will not be very enthusiastic either.

Another thing is that that Cat as a civil aircraft probably never was certified to fly with a nose turret. Only the military models had this. So there is no previous certification basis to fall back on. This means that you would have to get it certified as a change to an existing aircraft but the ‘modern’ rules would apply to that change, see above for the issues! 😉
A very far-fetched option would be to get the aircraft certified for operations from land only (as a Multi-engine Land type instead of ME amphibian), but this probably means a completely new type certification, and also you don’t get to do the fun stuff anymore 😉

The nose turret refit idea seems to be a problem for certification. Seems daft, but that’s what I’ve been told; hence the number of nose-turretless flyers vs static turreted ones; CAA in the UK weren’t keen on Plane Sailing’s proposal at all, first time that was suggested.

Cheers

This afternoon the Cat left Valkenburg NAS to receive its “paint” at AMS. It will emerge in the livery of a MLD Catalina. BW Roger

Good to see that the minor technical problems are solved. Its good to see her fly Roger. 🙂

J.V.

It would be nice if they could fit a nose turret to her?

Sorry for the daft question but ‘MLD’ is what???

Marine Luchtvaart Dienst.
Next question?

Flood

When i saw the first picture above i thought it was on jacks. When i couldnt see any jacks and pilots in the aircraft i got worried… It’s airbourne, but seems tobe flying completely deadstick! lol, talk about prop blur, or lack of it, wow!
On a serious note, thats great news, another flying cat. Excellent work.

Sorry for the daft question but ‘MLD’ is what???

This afternoon the Cat left Valkenburg NAS to receive its “paint” at AMS. It will emerge in the livery of a MLD Catalina. BW Roger

Catalina PH-PBY flew for the second time this week. I’ve seen her fly over my hometown Leiden (near Valkenburg NAS) about two hours ago. What a magnificent sight and sound!

I’ve been told that this specific PBY (c/n 300; BuNo 2459) is the oldest airworthy example and the top scoring antisubmarine aircraft of any nation and any type.

A short Quicktime movie (no sound) of her first flight on 4 August last can be found on http://www.neptune-association.nl/main/movies.html

Michiel Harmsen

Nice registration 🙂

And you thought Rasta Cat needed a lick of paint!!!!

Seriously, the Cat’s a lovely beast, good to see as many of ’em as possible in the air.