Plane Sailing (Catalina Aircraft Ltd)  Official Website

For many years the sight of an airworthy PBY Catalina was a familiar one, with the Duxford based Plane Sailing Super Catalina VP-BPS making regular airshow appearances, however this changed when in July 1998 disaster struck during a water landing at Southampton. The nose wheel bay doors failed and the aircraft sank with the death of two passengers aboard. Although VP-BPS is currently under restoration back to airworthy condition by Super Catalina Restorations, the warbird scene in the UK has been left with a large gap, one that will now be finally filled with the arrival of an airworthy former fire fighting "Cat" from Canada. 

The aircraft, construction No: CV283 was built at Cartierville, Quebec, and given the military serial 11005. Entering service on 27th October 1943, she served with the RCAF as a Canso A with No 9 (Bomber Reconnaissance) Sqn during WWII, flying anti-submarine patrols off Canada's west coast. Postwar she served with 413 Tusker Sqn based at Rockliffe Ontario performing aerial mapping and reconnaissance tasks mainly in the Arctic regions of Canada. 11005 also flew with 121 Sqn on search and rescue tasks from Sea Island, Vancouver. 11005 was finally withdrawn from military service in 1959, it was placed in storage for a time before being formally struck off charge in May 1961.

She was sold to Frontier Air Transport  for use by CANSPEC as a fire fighting water bomber with under-wing tanks, however she was converted by Field Aviation with internal hull tanks. Shortly after she started operations with Kenting Aviation of Toronto, and was hired out to the French Government's Protection Civile, based at Marseille as a water bomber. Kenting Aviation disposed of their fleet in 1974, and it then flew for a while with Prince Albert-based Norcanair on fire fighting duties in Saskatchewan.  In 1980, it was taken over by the Province of Saskatchewan fire fighting service at La Ronge and was eventually repainted bright yellow with green and red trim, coded '7', the colours it still wore upon it's arrival in the UK.

Eventually, and after years of sterling work, the Province of Saskatchewan fire fighting service decided to dispose of its three Catalina's. Two of the Catalina's (C-FNJF & C-FNJB) flew to St Thomas, Ontario where they were put up for sale.  The Catalina's were surveyed by representatives of a Zimbabwe-based group, who were in the early stages of setting up a tourist charter operation based in Harare using the two Catalina's.

Both aircraft were purchased and flew to Nanaimo on Vancouver Island. C-FNJF had the now redundant water tanks removed from within the hull, and in their place internal fittings suitable for passenger carrying were fitted, including an air stair and panoramic view blisters. Unsurprisingly with the continuing situation in Zimbabwe, the plans were abandoned and C-FNJF remained at Nanaimo and was put up for sale in late-1999.

C-FNJF was purchased by the newly formed Catalina Aircraft Ltd in August 2002. The Duxford based company was formed to enable 20 shareholders to own a share of this classic piece of aviation history. Despite being worked very hard in her years as a water bomber, she is in very good condition and has been extremely well maintained. Externally she was worn, but this this can be put right with a new paint job, but internally she is sound. Her Pratt & Whitney R-1830 engines were always regularly serviced and at purchase, have amassed just 150 hours since the last overhaul, and these engines remained unused for four years. The paperwork for this aircraft stated that the airframe had flown 12,829 hours.

The aircraft missed the 2003 season while still at Nanaimo, however she made her trans- Atlantic crossing arriving at Duxford on 30th March 2004. The rather wild paint scheme led to many nicknaming her the "Rasta Cat", however in June 2005 she went to Air Livery PLC at Marshall Aerospace Cambridge and she was given a much needed re-spray into the markings of the 5th Emergency Rescue Squadron. She is now painted in an overall white scheme representing 44-33915, an OA-10A Catalina based at Halesworth Suffolk. The original aircraft was on a mission to recover a downed P-51D pilot, but engine problems prevented the Catalina from taking off. Next day they were attacked by Me262 jets and the aircraft was sunk, but not before the crew were able to get the safety.

The Plane Sailing team is lead by Paul Warren Wilson. Paul spent 16 years as an RAF Jet Provost instructor and Harrier pilot, and is currently a 747 Classic freighter Captain with Cathay Cargo. Paul has over 1000 flying hours on the Catalina and is a highly competent display pilot.

As with many of the warbird operators, Plane Sailing has a supporters organisation known as the Catalina Society, which helps to provide funds for upkeep of the aircraft.

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