[flybymike]

Low flying (what looked to be) Catalina overhead Harrogate mid afternoon today.

Just idle curiosity; anyone know the who, why, what, and where behind it?

[Chilli Monster]

http://www.catalina.org.uk/

[Joe Dell]

http://catalina.cardinal-technologies.com/events.asp

[PeteSpencer]

It lives in the hangar adjacent to Airspace at Duxford.(Hangar 2)
It's usually parked outside, usually with a crowd of engineers crawling over it and in the past it's featured in most of the Duxford Airshows.
(Though sadly not in either airshow weekends so far this year.
I think It's displaying at the September Airshow weekend (10-11 September)

Peter

[grow45]

Its displaying at East Fortune tomorrow and I believe overnighting tonight at Edinburgh so was probably on its way here.

[PeteSpencer]

And if course Moose of this parish has a sign off in it:
Might even own a share......

[Moose]

Yeah she was heading up to Scotland for the East Fortune show, basing at Edinburgh for the weekend. As mentioned, lives at Duxford outside during summer and in the hanger for winter.

The aircraft is owned by 20 share holders (myself included), about half of whom are pilots. We have around 50 volunteers to help with the running of the aircraft doing anything from crew-chief to simply cleaning her. Multi-crew due to size and requires a type rating (one for land ops and a different one for water ops). I hold both and was recently signed off as PIC. Happy to answer any other queries you may have?

[flybymike]

Thanks for all that Moose,

Just not a sight I'm accustomed to seeing everyday!

[JoeC]

Happy to answer any other queries you may have?

Can I blag a ride?

[Dave W]

Just not a sight I'm accustomed to seeing everyday!

Me neither (unfortunately).

I have to say I find floatplanes/seaplanes of any kind a fascination. I blame Jack Brown's.

[Moose]

You guys might enjoy my latest video upload of a take-off from the cockpit at Duxford last month:

[grow45]

Yeah she was heading up to Scotland for the East Fortune show, basing at Edinburgh for the weekend. As mentioned, lives at Duxford outside during summer and in the hanger for winter.

The aircraft is owned by 20 share holders (myself included), about half of whom are pilots. We have around 50 volunteers to help with the running of the aircraft doing anything from crew-chief to simply cleaning her. Multi-crew due to size and requires a type rating (one for land ops and a different one for water ops). I hold both and was recently signed off as PIC. Happy to answer any other queries you may have?

Thanks, Enjoyed seeing it at East Fortune again. Would be good to see it make some water landings up here - lots of lochs to choose from. What length of take of run on water would it need?

G45

[grow45]

You guys might enjoy my latest video upload of a take-off from the cockpit at Duxford last month:

Thanks. What were the finger signals to P2? You mentioned you did the undercarriage so would that be a signal to raise flaps in stages? Is the cockpit too noisy to be sure of hearing each other even over an intercom?

[Moose]

The water stuff is probably the most fun I've had with an aircraft; everyone should do some float flying at some point! As for performance she needs around 1100m to get off the water and clear a 50ft obstacle and around 800m to land clearing the same height obstacle. I would love to bring her up to fly around some of the lochs but it's apparently a bit tricky to get permission these days...

The hand signals are for the two power reductions from the take-off setting to climb power. Those twin radials are so loud at full chat you cannot hear the intercom at all. The Catalina doesn't have any flaps, just a 104ft wing which allows for a 60.5kts stall speed at all up weight

[flybymike]

It was certainly "lumbering" over Harrogate when I saw it. What is typical cruise speed?