Published: Friday, July 30, 2010
Historic flying boat arrives on Whidbey Island
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Photo by Ashley Hedeen
A PBY was delivered to Whidbey Island recently by helicopter.
It didn't arrive on a wing and a prayer.
Whidbey Island's new flying boat was lowered to the ground from a helicopter. It arrived through the dedication and hard work of a stalwart band of volunteers.
PBY Memorial Foundation members raised money to buy a PBY-5A Catalina flying boat to return to its former 1943 home on Whidbey Island.
I wrote about the project Sept. 23, “Oak Harbor museum hoping for historic seaplane.”
The PBY of their dreams was sitting at Skagit Regional Airport. Foundation board member Jim Siggins says the PBY has a mysterious background.
“It had been damaged in Montana, disassembled and trucked to Skagit County 10 years ago,” Siggins says.
It was definitely stationed on Whidbey Island in 1943 and served two tours in Alaska's Aleutian Islands during WWII.
The group raised $60,000 to purchase the plane from a bank. The PBY was hoisted and flown to NAS Whidbey Island. Columbia Helicopters used a Chinook heavy-lift helicopter to transport the airplane to the parking lot next to the PBY Memorial Foundation Museum in Simard Hall.
The aircraft may be seen behind a fence on the Seaplane Base at Naval Air Station Whidbey.
Plans are to restore the airplane and put it on permanent display.
They need money to pay for the helicopter services and for refurbishing their historical treasure.
Mail donations to PBY Memorial Foundation, Box 941, Oak Harbor, WA, 98277-0941.
And if you would like to volunteer to help restore the PBY, call 360-240-9500.
Hank did a swell job at Biringer Farm's Red Rooster Route Days last weekend.
He won ribbons in the RRR Rooster Strut Beauty Pageant in Arlington where they offered bouncy houses, a picnic and pony and trolley rides.
Hank, a rooster, visited the festivities with Nicole Powers, a Lake Stevens cowgirl poet. We wrote about Powers July 19, “Lake Stevens poet unleashes inner cowgirl.”
She was invited to take Hank to the hoedown.
“It was a fun day,” Powers says. “I had to participate in a chicken dance, which wasn't so bad.”
Kristi O'Harran: 425-339-3451, oharran@heraldnet.com.
Whidbey Island's new flying boat was lowered to the ground from a helicopter. It arrived through the dedication and hard work of a stalwart band of volunteers.
PBY Memorial Foundation members raised money to buy a PBY-5A Catalina flying boat to return to its former 1943 home on Whidbey Island.
I wrote about the project Sept. 23, “Oak Harbor museum hoping for historic seaplane.”
The PBY of their dreams was sitting at Skagit Regional Airport. Foundation board member Jim Siggins says the PBY has a mysterious background.
“It had been damaged in Montana, disassembled and trucked to Skagit County 10 years ago,” Siggins says.
It was definitely stationed on Whidbey Island in 1943 and served two tours in Alaska's Aleutian Islands during WWII.
The group raised $60,000 to purchase the plane from a bank. The PBY was hoisted and flown to NAS Whidbey Island. Columbia Helicopters used a Chinook heavy-lift helicopter to transport the airplane to the parking lot next to the PBY Memorial Foundation Museum in Simard Hall.
The aircraft may be seen behind a fence on the Seaplane Base at Naval Air Station Whidbey.
Plans are to restore the airplane and put it on permanent display.
They need money to pay for the helicopter services and for refurbishing their historical treasure.
Mail donations to PBY Memorial Foundation, Box 941, Oak Harbor, WA, 98277-0941.
And if you would like to volunteer to help restore the PBY, call 360-240-9500.
Hank did a swell job at Biringer Farm's Red Rooster Route Days last weekend.
He won ribbons in the RRR Rooster Strut Beauty Pageant in Arlington where they offered bouncy houses, a picnic and pony and trolley rides.
Hank, a rooster, visited the festivities with Nicole Powers, a Lake Stevens cowgirl poet. We wrote about Powers July 19, “Lake Stevens poet unleashes inner cowgirl.”
She was invited to take Hank to the hoedown.
“It was a fun day,” Powers says. “I had to participate in a chicken dance, which wasn't so bad.”
Kristi O'Harran: 425-339-3451, oharran@heraldnet.com.
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