PBY super-long-range patrol book?

[stepwilk]

Years ago, I vaguely remember--yeah, I know, I'm not being much help--a book about some epic PBY Catalina flight that I think was from somewhere in the South Pacific to the west coast of South America.

Does this ring any bells?

Any information on it or on other epic PBY missions will be appreciated. I'm writing about the little-known Qantas nonstop route between Perth and Ceylon in 1943-'45, and the longest-duration unrefueled flight they made was 32 hours. I'd like to find out if other PBYs flew anything even slightly comparable.

It's funny that most aviation enthusiasts will confidently tell you that the longest-duration airline flight is Singapore's current 18.5-hours legs, or if they're really smart that a Lockheed Constellation once flew a 22-something-hour passenger leg. Qantas beat them all soundly, but surprisingly few remember it.

I certainly didn't, and published the Constellation "record" in an Aviation History article last year. An ex-Qantas gent named Alan Cairncross politely corrected me recently.

[chevvron]

The Ceylon - Oz flights (24hrs +) were documented in an article in Aeroplane Monthly about 20 years ago.

[Atcham Tower]

An air traffic controller I used to work with had been a ferry pilot during the war. Some of his deliveries were Catalinas from Bermuda to either Largs in SW Scotland or Beaumaris on the Menai Strait in North Wales. He told me the average flight time was 24 hours so that's getting close!

[stepwilk]

Thanks, Chevvron. I'll see if AM can identify the issue and if they still have back copies.

[Wander00]

Ted Hawkins, then Flt Lt, now a retired AVM, won a DFC (one of his two) for some very long flight, 24hrs+, in a Catalina, which involved flying to Russia. It was written up briefly in Flypast a few years back, and I enlarged the print so that Ted could read it for himself.

[longer ron]

Could it be one of the Sir Gordon Taylor autobios ?
Sounds like 'Frigate Bird' (PBY)...interesting read
but my fave was 'Bird of the Islands' (Sandringham).
But he wrote quite a few books ...so worth checking out !

[Captain Dart]

'The Sky Beyond' by P.G. Taylor sounds like the book you are after.

[longer ron]

P G Taylor = Sir Gordon Taylor

list of autobios

Pacific Flight (1935)
VH-UXX (1937)
Call to the Winds (1944)
Forgotten Island (1948)
Frigate Bird (1953)
The Sky Beyond (1963)
Bird of the Islands (1964)
Sopwith Scout 7309 (1968)

[Wander00]

"After Flight Lieutenant D. E. Hawkins of No. 240 Squadron had made the initial reconnaissance on 4th-5th April, 1942, carrying as observers Major Sverdrup, the leader of the projected Norwegian expedition, and the Arctic explorer Lieutenant A. R. Glen, R.N.V.R., the task of visiting Spitsbergen and tracking the ice-edge along the convoy route had fallen largely to Healy. Hawkins' flight from Sullom Voe, a matter of some 2,500 miles and twenty-six hours out and home, had been undertaken exceptionally early in the year for high latitude flying"

From The RAF 1939-45 Vol II

[Super Cecil]

They had a "Double sunrise" award of one of the commecial runs from Australia's west coast during the war.

[Tankengine]

"Frigate bird" was the book about the Catalina flight from Australia to Chile.
Aircraft nearly destroyed at Easter island in both directions!:eek:
They used JATO rockets for ocean take-offs.
Fantastic read!:ok:

[stepwilk]

That sounds like it--an Australia-to-Chile flight, thank you all. Now to see if I can find the book, which seems to be way out of print.

[Saab Dastard]

I've got "The Sky Beyond" and "Bird of the Islands", and thoroughly recommend them.

Sir G has a slightly... dry, perhaps understated, style of writing, but that does not in any way detract from his achievements or the enjoyment of reading about them. Great man, great aviator. Makes me wish I'd been born 60 years earlier!

SD

Hmmm, must get hold of his other books! Birthday coming up...

[Liobian]

Also, there's a good account of the N Atlantic (and other) deliveries of PBYs in 'North Atlantic Cat' by Don McVicar; published by Airlife. :ok:

[Been Accounting]

stepwilk

I have a copy of a 1945 document on the double sunrise PER-CMB

If interested PM me with your e-mail address and I will try to send you a copy.

[dirkdj]

The book by Don McVicar is very good, it also covers the establishment of the 'Northern Route' via Greenland (BW1 etc).

[renfrew]

Qantas at war by Sir Hudson Fysh has the full story of the Perth-Ceylon flights.
Merchant Airmen,the British Govt. history of wartime civil aviation also has some information.
It should be noted that these Catalinas were British registered BOAC aircraft on loan to Qantas.

[brakedwell]

Perhaps this map of flights by Sir Gordon Taylor in his book "The Sky Beyond" isbn 0-553-23949-X might help.

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c32/sedgwickjames/General%20Pics/Screenshot2010-08-17at165350.png

[tornadoken]

sw: have you seen B.Pattison, G.Goodall, QEA Indian O. Service 1943-46,AHSA,1979, 09599933654?

[albatross]

I was lucky enought to be a friend of Don in his later years.
All his books are a good read.
A great guy.
Cheers
Albatross

[overfly]

I received a copy of 'The Sky Beyond' a couple of birthdays ago from my wife, after a recommendation from this very place. Yes, understated, but what stories are told, they fired my imagination ! Whilst touring Oz last January we managed to stumble upon 7 Mile Beach where Taylor and 'Smithy' took off on the first passenger flight to NZ (that was in Suthern Cross of course). Later that week we saw ostensibly Taylor's PBY in the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney.

[brakedwell]

Looks like the guy who started this thread has gone walkabout.

[stepwilk]

No, I'm still here and have been following the thread. The article that I was writing for Aviation History Magazine (about the wartime Qantas route between Perth and Ceylon, which still holds the absolute record for longest-duration nonstop scheduled airline flights, with the longest one at approximately 32 hours from buoy to buoy) was finished weeks ago, and I suppose I could have posted that everybody could go home, I had the information I needed. But the thread seemed to have taken on a minor life of its own, with various people contributing bits of info to each other, so I let it be.

Rest assured, though, I check in on this forum at least twice a day, every day, since I'm an aviation-history writer and pilot, and it sometimes provides me with excellent information.

[bonajet]

Did you see the PM, stepwilk?