PBY Walkaroud
On July 21, 2000 I had the opportunity to meet with Dennis Dogget and learn about the restoration. The restoration will return the plane to its WWII RAAF configuration of search and rescue.

This massive plane is in the process of being meticulously restored with fabricated and recovered parts, including pieces from abandoned PBY's at Palm Island in Queensland. Here, Dennis Dogget stands next to the waist "tear drop" shaped hatch of the fuselage.

Sleeping Quarters
Sometimes 19 - 21 hours. Later on, we used to fly Catalinas from Perth to Sri Lankai. Sometime if they had a headwind, 31 hours! When they would get back to Perth, and they would check the tanks, they would only have 40 gallons left!

Parts - Fabricating
According to Doggett:
"We have managed to scrounge about three-fourths of the parts we need for the restoration. For the rest, we have to get creative. This map table was created from photographs. Our replica is exactly like the original, which just does not exists anywhere. You do get a lot of satisfaction in restoring stuff like this!" Here Doggett holds a WWII photo of a PBY interior over top the same view in the restored PBY - the likeness is perfect.

Parts - Scrounging and Copying
The gun platforms came off a wrecked PBY from Palm Island. Sure, its been there 50 -70 feet from the salt water, in the open air. There's allot of corrosion on it, but there are allot of parts, about 70% are mint. If you could, you could hop in, and fly it!

The ammo box we had to make up from photos and diagrams. The right side feed chute was given to us on loan. We copied it, then reversed it and made the left hand side chute. We have one floor panel, but we don't have one for the other side. We will have to make a copy from the one we do have, but that will be a very difficult part to make.

Update September 2001