CNAPG activities.

During a trip to Griffith, members of the CNAPG called in to the airport. While there we were invited in for a coffee by members of the Aero Club. After hearing about our activities, one of them mentioned a bomber cockpit located on a farm near Colleambally.

On the way home from Griffith we diverted to Coleambally and started a search. We found a farm where some of the locals reported that there had once been an aeroplane. No one was home, so we left a note.

That night the farmer phoned and told us that he used to have a Catalina nose section. It had been used initially by crews digging irrigation channels through the area in the 40's and early 50's. It used to be hooked up to one of the dreges and dragged along behind it. When the channels were completed in that region, it was left behind and was used as accomodation for farm workers.

He had subdivided his property back in the 70s and no longer had the Catalina, but it was now on the property next to him which now belonged to Glenis McGown. We contacted Glenis to arrange a time to go and have a look at the cockpit. She was using it as a storage shed, but when she heard about our activities, she donated it to the CNAPG.

We picked up the cockpit and took it back to Wagga Wagga. It was initialy stored at Mark Deluca's place, then on the RAAF Base for a while before being moved back into town to the CNAPG's warehouse.

It was later placed on long term loan to Australia's Museum of Flight at Nowra, New South Wales.

Here's the cockpit as it was found at Glenis's.

 

A shallow hole had been dug and the cockpit was placed into it and soil had been placed into the cockpit to stop it blowing away.

 

 It's not everyday that a Catalina pulls into their service station.

Here's where the Catalina lived for a few years - outside the CNAPG warehouse in Wagga Wagga.

Later it got a bit of company when the CNAPG Cesnna joined it.

Here it is about to depart to it's new home for the next 10 years, Australia's Museum of Flight at Nowra. Museum Curator, Mark Clayton and one of the museum's helpers came down to pick it up.

Another quick stop to check the tie downs before leaving wagga Wagga.

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