On Apr 6, 9:55*pm, Dan wrote:
On 4/6/2012 10:24 PM, Peter Stickney wrote:

The PBY is an amazing beast - I've never been inside one, but I've seen
a couple of them fly.

* * If you ever get the chance to go to Pensacola NAS the museum has a
cutaway Catalina fuselage. They may look big on the outside, but they
are crowded inside. Take a look at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/shutter...09/4728119350/


That makes me happy, actually. That cutaway fuselage used to be
integral to the base survival school -- I have photos of it internally
and externally when I was going through aircrew candidate school in
81. When the survival school was condemned (it was from the 40s and
was not in very good shape even when I was there) a few years back,
quite a few of us cried foul and ultimately the Cat was saved. Back
in the day, the interior was completely restored, with all the
original equipment (weapons, SAR gear, electronics, etc.) that a
wartime aircraft would be expected to carry. Beside it was a full
size diorama of a pilot in his life raft, with all his goodies laid
out on the inflated part. Several years later, we overflew LCDR JM
Twiss, down at sea after his A-7 stalled. I had a momentary smile
when I realized he had all of his gear laid out on his raft-edge, just
like at the survival school we had both attended.


* *If I wanted to make a comparison to B-17, it is cramped inside in
some places and open in other. To give you an idea stroll inside a B-17
from cockpit to aft crew door. The bracing for the bomb bay cat walk
makes one walk sideways even when bombs aren't present. I must admit I
had a bit of a belly last time I did that and it was a tight squeeze.
The waist, nose, cockpit and radio sections of B-17 are fairly roomy.
There are spaces and restrictions in the PBY. The engineer's feet block
the top foot or so of the cockpit door. If you want to open the blisters
you do so on your knees. Neither was built for luxury, but both had
character.

* *Plan on taking a full day at the museum if you go. The displays are
jammed together so photography can be a bit tricky.

Dan, U.S. Air Force, retired