From Palatka Dailey News
Vintage Warbird: East Palatka pilot taking 63-year-old ‘Black Cat’ to air show
By Ron Bartlett
PALATKA -- This weekend’s NAS Jacksonville air show will have some local Putnam County flavor, as Charlie Clements’ “Black Cat” PBY Catalina will be on display with other vintage warbirds.
The 63-year-old Catalina, which has been featured on the History Channel show Heavy Metal and on the cover of Warbirds International magazine, currently splits time between the Gatlinburg Pigeon Forge Airport in Tennessee and Tamiami Airport in Miami. It is currently on the flight line at Palatka Kay Larkin Airport, where it will remain until Thursday morning when it embarks for Jacksonville.
“I’ve never been (to the air show at NAS Jacksonville),” Clements said. “I’m looking forward to it. It’s an old PBY base.”
The East Palatka resident’s interest in aviation came from his father, who was an Eastern Airlines pilot. His dad also owned a Republic SeaBee Amphibian, which helped fuel Clements’ interest in seaplanes. Clements, at one time owned two SeaBees of his own, both of which he sold to help purchase the “Cat.”
He began flying when he was 13, getting lessons for $16 an hour. He said he “tried like crazy,” to join the Navy as a pilot during the Vietnam War, but bad eyesight prevented him. He eventually worked his way from private pilot to commercial, joining Southern Airways in Atlanta as a co-pilot on a twin-engine Martin 404.
Clements is currently a captain for Delta Airlines, flying a Boeing 767 on a trans-Atlantic route.
The Cat, as he calls his PBY Catalina, was built in October 1943 and saw time in the Pacific during World War II. It was later converted to civilian use.
Clements said that owning an authenticate piece of history is something special.
“I think there’s about 16 or 17 left that could fly,” he said. “It’s pretty rare.”
The black paint scheme Clements’ Catalina employs honors the Black Cat PBY squadrons of World War II, which once ran a gauntlet of islands called “the slot” between Guadalcanal and Ribaul. Because the aircraft were such big, slow targets, they flew their missions at night and were painted black to blend in with the night sky.
The sides of Clements’ plane feature 60-inch Navy “stars and bars” with the rest of the markings in the style of the original combat aircraft, down to the bureau numbers.
“The original tail numbers n the bureau numbers — are the same,” he said. “I got it from the FAA to give it a sort of connection (to the past).”
Clements bought the plane in 1989 after spotting it at an air show in Miami. Ironically, it was a friend of his, Jack Leavis, who owned it.
“It was kind of ratty,” he said. “It was real ratty.”
Clements said that he and Leavis sat under the wing and drank beer when Leavis made him an offer he couldn’t refuse.
“He said, ‘Charlie, I’ve got $192,000 dollars in this airplane and I’ll give it to you for $150,000.’”
Clements said that at the time, being single and working full time as an airline pilot, it wasn’t too difficult to ante up the money he eventually paid for the aircraft.
And he said he hasn’t regretted it.
Clements said that despite the thousands of man-hours and thousands of dollars he’s invested to bring his “Cat” back to life, it’s been a wonderful experience.
Like the horse in “Black Beauty,” Clements’ “black cat” has had many far-reaching adventures of its own. After retiring from the Navy in 1956, it continued service in Toronto, Ottawa and Ontario in Canada, and did two stints in Australia. It has performed in roles such as aerial surveying and as a passenger plane, and at one time began an overhaul to become a fire-bomber, but that was never completed. It is technically designated as a “super cat” n one of eight made — after its original Pratt & Whitney R-1830 engines were replaced with Wright R-2600 engines in the 1960s, adding an additional 1,000 hp. The aircraft’s total “giddyup” is about 3,400 hp.
While Clements has an appreciable affection for his “black cat,” he is always looking for new challenges and the opportunity to bring other planes back to life. Therefore, this “cat” is for sale for a mere $490,000.
Anyone interested in more information about the Catalina can go to Clements’ Web site at
www.superthree.com.
He said, though, that there is one more major modification still to take place for a plane that has not seen salt water in at least 28 years.
“We’re putting bilge pumps in this one when we get back to Miami,” he said. “Then we’re going to Lake Okeechobee and we’re going to get it in the water.”
rbartlett@palatkadailynews.com
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Be pretty cool to get a "Black Cat" for Haloween.
Robbie
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