Picking up fish at Savage Island, Island Lake from Kee-No-Zae Co-operative Ltd destined for Winnipeg and elsewhere . One northbound trip carried diesel in a wing tank, the next northbound carried outboard motor gasoline and the next was avgas for our aircraft thus avoiding most contamination!

Photographer: Rainer Haufschild.

Photographer: Karl Krämer.

The Flying Fireman was formed in Victoria (by Alex Davidson and Bill Harrison) to operate two PBY-5s water bombers out of Prince George (CF-NTL and N609FF) in 1965 and 1966. By 1973, BC was fully committed to land-based retardant air tankers but continued to use PBYs on a casual basis, and Flying Fireman found work elsewhere in Canada and the US. This PBY-5 served with the US Navy as BuNo 46522 and became N5585V. Imported to Canada in 1972 and operated as tanker #7 and #777. January 1990 to Erickson Group Ltd in Oregon as N2172N. To Erickson Aircraft Collection in 2012 and Avenger LLC in 2016.

Former RCAF 9830. Owned by Collings Foundation and appears to be undergoing restoration at American Aero Services.

Former RCAF 9830. Owned by Collings Foundation and appears to be undergoing restoration at American Aero Services.

Former PH-PBY acquired by the Collings Foundation.

A real plane spotter's sort of picture, though probably taken air-to-air. The PBY had no flaps. BuNo 7301 lost in open sea landing off San Diego on 12 May 1944, then with VJ-2. Photo by: Peter Stackpole / Life

Registered on 14th January 1960, ex N94574 to T.D. Keegan who reportedly purchased the aircraft to secure a survey contract in the North Sea. Seen still wearing the logo of one of its previous owners, World Wide Aviation Services. The contract was not secured and G-APZA was scrapped at Southend in November 1960 (or June 1961?) having not gained a certificate of airworthiness. Photographer not known.

Ex US Navy 48294. Operated by the Military Aviation Museum at Virginia Beach since 2001.

Los Angeles industrialist Thomas W Kendall bought 13 Catalinas for conversion into air yachts similar to N69043. In 1960, Kendall set out from London in N5593V with his own family and a photographer on board. After seeing the pyramids, they alighted off the Saudi coast on 22 March to relax on the beach, but the next morning, they were attacked and taken prisoner by a group of armed Bedouins who took them for Israeli commandos. The bullet-riddled remains of the Catalina are still present on the beach - see other photo. Photo by: David Lees / Life

That the concept of touring the world in a flying yacht might not be understood everywhere was highlighted on 23 March 1960 when the American Kendall family came under attack by armed tribesmen on this beach near the Gulf of Aqaba. The wreck can be inspected through Google Street View. Unfortunately the wing pylon has meanwhile collapsed and the tail broken off. This airframe had also starred in a 1959 movie, SOS Pacific. See the other photos. Photo by: Ken Stanford

Glenn Odekirk, on the left, revived the pre-war 'air yacht' concept with this luxuriously converted 'Landseaire' Catalina, ex BuNo 34045. Loomis Dean did a photo shoot for an advertorial in Life. The model in polka dot bikini sunbathes on top of one of the R-1830 Twin Wasps in some of the pictures. A dinghy was carried under the wing. Other amenities included a kitchen, a bar and a shower but everything must have been pretty cramped. N69043 was sold to a wealthy Brazilian and crashed at Picinguaba, Sao Paulo on 5 July 1953. Photo by: Loomis Dean / Life

A second batch of PBY-5As was delivered to Brazil in late 1944. One of the earlier batch, FAB 02, sank a German U-boat on 31 July 1943. Ex BuNo 46524, FAB 14 shows a painted-out US roundel underwing. Later FAB 6513. Redesignated as a PA-10 in 1945. Converted to CA-10A transport aircraft in 1958, but retired in 1959. Photo from: Smithsonian Institution

Flying Fireman Canso number 4 having just flown off a lake after picking up another load of water, some of which can be see streaming past the aircraft. This Canso started out with the US Navy as BuNo 46596 before joining Flying Fireman in 1967. After its days with them ended in 1992 it went to the Museo del Aire in Madrid, Spain.

Registered in January 1960 and cancelled in July 1960. Originally built for the US Navy and here recently imported from Rotterdam ex N94574. I'm sure there was no British type approval for these so, not surprisingly, it did not aspire to a C of A and was scrapped at EGMC in November 1960.

Served with 42 Squadron RAAF as 'Black Cat' RK-A and took part in a secret, long-range mission to drop mines in Manila harbour in December 1944. Sold and stripped for spares post-war but later converted to a houseboat on the Murray River.

Started life in Sep 1942 as 08109 of the US Navy. Sold to the Danish Air Force in Sep 1951 as 82-857 "Munin", withdrawn from use on 14 October 1967 and stored at Vaerlose. Bought by Jens Larsen and transported to his farm near Plejerup, Denmark. Acquired by Flyhistorisk Museum Sola in November 1989 in poor condition and beautifully restored and painted in Norwegian markings