65 replies to this topic

[REDA9X]

It's a shame this aircraft was never maintained and basically rotted away. I've tried to track exactly which aircraft it was and it's final fate but no one is really sure. It's certainly an ex RAAF aircraft though as they were de-modded to have the landing gear removed.

[RallyRed]

wow....imagine doing that these days !!- taking a speedboat full of kids for a lap around a pool , a few metres from kids swimming .

 

You'd be declared mad, ....those old days must have been pretty cool.

[Stinga]

while on the topic of Catalina's

 

[Collo]

That would be the black pool now, TBM?

 

 Used to catch yabbies in it when I lived there.

[frash da bucket]

Hi Bruce,

 

I have on 16mm film of the speed boat going around the catalina in circles, the footage is was filmed by my grandfather in 1949.

The Catalina was removed from the lake in 1960,as michael had mentioned it rotted away,the lake was made smaller,for the swimming pool which in next door to the lake,and next door to the swimming pool is the catalina race track was bulit early 60's.

 

Regards John

[REDA9X]

Wow that would be awesome to see.

[a9x868]

great photo's

love the town of katoomba

stopped in there on the way to and from bathurst

and must stop in at catalina one day

thanks for posting

cheers

davemc

[dascind]

I have published an article on the history of the his now forgotton race track and was in the Newsletter of the Hunter Valley Torana Club.

Unfortunately, the attachment will not upload - blame the 'hard drive' (!) which would be the case if you tried driving on the track now!!

Happy to email out if address is provided.

 

Cheers Dave

[frash da bucket]

Hi Michael,

 

I asked my uncle last night,he is ex raaf,he told me that they had 15 minute moves inside the plane,while the speed boat went around the plane in circles to give the plane the rocking affect,like if the plane was flying.

I asked him of what happened to the plane or were it went to,he does think it went back to richmond but he is not 100% sure if it did or not.

He also told me to have a look at his old aircraft books here at home to see if i can identify what sort of catalina it was.

 

Regards John.

[ReplicarSLR]

He also told me to have a look at his old aircraft books here at home to see if i can identify what sort of catalina it was.

Looks to be a PBY4 or 5 as it has the blisters, earlier models had a sliding door arrangement and it's not amphibian ie PBY5A onwards were 'mostly' amphibian. The one in the photo also looks to have the mid model (more common) tail, the earlier and very late ones had a different vertical stabilzer shape.

There were however some later amphibian models that had the undercarrage removed and convertered to flying boats only ( Red mentioned this before). There ere also some earlier models with the sliding waist doors that had the blisters retro fitted.

I am no guru on these, only going on what I have recall from my step father and I may have it wrong, I will ask my stepfather he's been into Catalinas for years, he may even know some of the history on this particular one.

Edited by enderwigginau, 01 March 2013 - 08:57 PM.

[REDA9X]

When I researched this a few years ago, we put it down to two aircraft. Both had down war time service and time with QANTAS. The high majority of RAAF aircraft were either ordered without, or de-modded to have the landing gear removed, though some did have it. I was told the aircraft was basically cut up on the scene and removed by truck and scrapped. To my knowledge it never came back to Richmond. The connection for Catalinas to Richmond is the Hangar.

The photo Stinga put up is from the old RAAF base Rathmines. When it closed down, the hangar was disasembled and put on a barge and taken to Richmond and reassembled. For many years that was the RAAF 707 hangar until their retirment. It now servs as a contractor hangar. The following page is an excellent resource.

http://www.adf-serials.com/

[REDA9X]

Was like? Still there

[RallyRed]

remember having a run in a Group Nc Xu1 around that track in the 80s.

It was a Jaguar Sydney Club Supersprint day. 

Even then the track had grass growing thru it and water dribbling across the track in several places...particularly the north /west? tight corner, that had a full tree canopy and seemed permsnatly wet.

It was so foggy, the first event didnt occur 'till after lunch!....cold and miserable!....but good fun.

[RallyRed]

....havent seen it since the 80s..it was in pretty poor nick then...seem to remeber it was a bit sketchy where the old dirt rallycross track joined to the tar.

Reckon it could be revived......but remember it is right in town....so you could prob. only use it between 11:58 and 12 noon, every 5th Saturday..! due to noise etc

 

Like I siad...I recall it had water running across it in a few places?...no so good if on slicks.

The armco fences were pretty rust to.

The other thing , I think, was that the pits were inside the track...i.e once racing was started, no one could leave/come into the pits.

 

Regardless...a classic old Aussie track