You got to love flying boats. It’s one thing for a plane to land on a piece of earth but landing on water and then taking off again is just something else. The Consolidated PBY Catalina was one of the most widely used flying boats in WWII for air sea rescue, patrols, cargo, and antisubmarine activity. It was used in the military up till the 1980’s and in some areas is still used for firefighting as a water dumper. However more are seen today in museums than they are flying about, so to have the opportunity to photograph this plane was awesome.
One of the rather unique features of this aircraft is the wing pontoons go up and down from the edge of the wings. The pontoons go down when the plane lands on the water and go back up, as seen, when the plane is flying as a way to decrease drag and increase speed. Although it may not be the fastest plane, it sure is great observation plane.
In the Camera Bag:
Nikon D3, 200-400 VRII, on Lexar UDMA Digital Film