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Wonder if a water landing (wheels up) would even be considered? I understand most PBY's are no longer operated from the water due to corrosion concerns- but have most lost the ability entirely?
PH-PBY is completely able to do water landings. If you book a regular half hour trip with them they often perform one and then do a water take off.
They are very proud to show this to their customers, especially while they are the oldest built and thus the oldest flying Catalina in the world.
When the wheel did not come out they thought about doing a water landing but decided not to do this.
Reason being that landing on the tarmac would take them straight to their home base where they have their own hangar, thus making the process of repairs much easier.
And the nearest available water is a couple of miles away, which would have made for a difficult trip by road to Lelystad airport.
They figured that the airframe would be able to take the force of this landing without taking much damage.
The pictures show they were right in doing this.
Eric