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ILLUSTRATED
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for him, pickedup by the wrongside!
laneSailing's
Catalina,
lovingly
dubbed unfortunately
along
the 'RastaCat'by someairshow-goers Thelossof 44-33915 is commemorated,
dueto itsformerscruffybut colourful
with all other8th Air Forceaircraftlosses,
on the
paintscheme,underwent
glasspanelsentitled'Counting
firebomber
a
the Cost'alongthe
repaintin June.Sheemerged
fromthe
entrance
walkwayto the American
Air Museumat
- which,coincidentally
paintshopat Cambridge
Duxford
in an overall
enough,is where
glosswhiteliverywith minimalist
this Catalinais nowbased.
markings
to represent
an aircraftflownfrom RAF
Flyinga thirstyaircraftlikethis purelyfor a
photoshootis not reallyan option,so arranging
the
Halesworth
in WW2,namely44-33915
meanttakinga lookat PlaneSailing's
Sophistlcat,
oneof the USArmyAir Force's
OA-10A assignment
operated
by the 5th Emergency calendarand pickingan airshowtransitflightthat
Catalina
amphibians
Rescue
Souadron
of the 8th Air Force.Thiswasone wouldfit the bill.23 Junejumpedout immediately
as beinga longtransitto the AirPower05 showat
of severalsuchaircraftusedto locateand rescue
downedAlliedairmen,andwasdetailedto search
Zeltwegin Austria- havingpassedmy geography
examsat school,I was prettysurethis involveda
for a ditchedUSAAFP-5lD Mustangpiloton
sectoroverwater,whichis just whereI wantedthe
30 March1945.TheOA-10Alandedon the North
aircraftto befor at leastsomeof the photos.This
Seanearthe Dutchcoastbut wasunableto takeoff
of PlaneSailingandthe day
againbecause
of enginetroubles,
andwasattacked metwith the approval
andsunkby Me262sthe nextday- thanKully,
in question
dawnedbrightandsunny,an incredible
boththe crewof the Catalina
andthe P-51 pilot
strokeof luckduringwhat hasbeenan aMullygrey
panicaboutbeing
However,
wererescued.
the unluckyP-51flierwas, year.Aftera brieflast-minute
6 0 1a
ableto fly the cameraship
into Duxfordearly
enoughthat morning(sortedthanksto a friendly
FISO),we briefedthe shootand letthe Catalina
pilots,RodBrooking
geton with
and KeithSissons,
startingtheirbigwhitebeast.lt takestimefor the
old girlto warmup, but soonenoughwe wereboth
airborneand routingnorthof Stansted's
control
zonebeforeturningtowardsClactonand beginning
the shoot.
TheCat'sarrivalat Zeltwegwas restricted
to a
particular
time slot,puttingthe crewundera
certainamountof time pressure
if theydid not
wantto be forcedto divertelsewhere.
Conscious
of
this, I intendedto get mostof my shotswithout
requiring
the PBYto deviatefrom its intended
course,insteadusingthe superioragilityof the
cameraship
to reposition
aroundthe subject
aircraftto get shotsfromvariousangleswhile
remainingat a safedistance.Regardless
of that,
fromtimeto timethe rumbleof herengines
could
be madeout abovethe noiseof the camera
*,.l\r,t
,&
k!*H"i&
aircraft's
own powerplant.
Sparkling
in the sunlight
overthegreenfieldsof Essex,
shemadea
magnificent
sight- anda veryappropriate
one,
giventhe amphibian's
newmarkings
withtheir
EastAnglianconnection.
HadUSAAFOA-1OAs
in
thesecoloursbeenseenin theseveryskiesduring
WW2, I wondered?
Oneof the privileges
of doing
thissortof thingis just beingableto takethe
cameraawayfromyoureyefor a few momentsin
orderto drinkin thesheerspectacle
of a beautiful
in itselement.
aircraft
All too soon,the coastwas in sight,So.after
a coupleof quickturnsoverthe mostphotogenic
b i t so f c o a s t l i naev a i l a b lteo u s ,i t w a st i m ef o r
the finalsequence
of shots.We followedthe
Catalina
out overthe NorthSeafor a few minutes
u n t i lt h e m u d d yw a t e rc l e a r e ad l i t t l ea n dt h e n
peeiedawayto go backto base and dig
througha CFcardfull of shotslMeanwhile,
the
PBYmadeit to Zeltweglatethat afternoon
aftera
bigtrip for this wonderful
old aircraft.
P l a n eS a i l i n go p e r a t e st h e
C a t a l i n af o r t h e C a t a l i n a
A i r c r a f tL t d s y n d i c a t ea n d ,
a t t h e t i m e o f w r i t i n g ,s t i l l
h a s t w o s h a r e sa v a i l a b l e
- s e et h e o r g a n i s a t i o n ' s
w e b s i t ea t
www.catan
l i a b o o kni g s . o r g
f o r m o r ed e t a i l s a
, long
w i t h i n f o r m a t i oo
nn
a i r s h o w sa t w h i c h y o u
c a n s e et h e P B Y ,T h e
s a m es i t e a l s op r o v i d e sa
l i n kt o T h e C a t a l i n a
S o c i e t ym
, e m b e r so f
whichsupporthe
udLdilild
5 uilBulrB
operatlon.