I have a couple stories about Tanker 85. It was about 1985, I was living in Heppner Oregon, it was summer fire season in the Northwest US and I got a call from a friend. He asked if I had my scanner on because there was a Washington State DNR Water Scooper saying “Fuel Critical” and going to make a night water landing in the Columbia River. He had been working a fire near The Dalles Oregon and when it got dark headed back to his base in Deer Park Washington, planing a fuel stop in Pasco.

When he got to Pasco his landing gear wouldn’t come down so he had to land in the River. Being a flyer and airplane fanatic, I had several aviation frequencies plugged in to my scanner so turned it on and started listening. The “Chinook Approach” controller told him they would have the sheriff make sure the area between the Blue Bridge and the Cable Bridge was clear. On final approach the controller asked him how many night water landings he had. The pilot replied “This will be my first one”. The landing went well and he beached the plane at the boat launch at the south end of the Blue bridge. A DNR aircraft mechanic came over from Olympia the next day and fixed the landing gear, the tanker pilot took off, landed at the Pasco airport, and refueled.

Then in 2009 I was living in Ellensburg,WA. I hauled my Kitfox Rotax engine over to the Arlington Airport in my pickup to the Rotax Service Center to have the gear box oil seal replaced. When I got to the airport I called the mechanic to get the gate code. He said use the gate where the “PBY” is sitting. You guessed it, It was Tanker 85.

A few years ago I was at Bowers Field in Ellensburg for Coffee and donuts and telling lies about flying. The DNR still had their Fire Boss Air Tractor scoopers based there and one of the pilots and his wife brought some sweet rolls and joined us. I told the story about a PBY landing at night on the Columbia River and he said "That PBY Scooper pilot works with us".

Google Earth Tanker 85 on the ramp at Arlington August 2011


Link to "The Rise and Fall of Tanker 85. For the rest of the story in "Aviation in the West" Magazine. Lots of good photos but kind of a sad ending.
https://aviationinthewest.wordpress.com ... -tanker-85

Wow. Great write up and photos. A shame to read about the ending. What a cool plane.

I've made precisely one dark night landing in a seaplane.....in a Super Cub. I'd prefer not to do another, and definitely not in a PBY.

Great story, thanks!

MTV

That is a very cool story.

The Catalina was the first airplane model that I made, Airfix I think. This just came up in my youtube feed:

https://youtu.be/9TaBTjHVx6A?si=7WOLZQXSZmszDXyF

The BC museum in Victoria have just acquired the Martin Mars water bomber from Coulson and it is being prepared for a ferry flight from Port Alberni to YYJ

https://www.timescolonist.com/local-new ... um-8520547

Those are cool airplanes for sure. We have one that a local group acquired and fixed up. In Canada they were called Cansos. The TV show "Lost Car Rescue" saw it parked at Fairview last year and wanted to get it some air time on TV, so I set my runway up so it looked a bit more remote so they could land there and deliver a bushwheel for Matt, who had been "stranded" after landing and picking up a elk antler in the tire on his Stinson. Cool to be part of.
This is the website that shares the story of the recovery of the airplane. http://www.savethecanso.com/.
We also just hooked the society up with a T33, so they set that up as a static display at the Fairview airport now.

Those are some great links you guys have posted. Thanks!

Scene from the Siielberg movie "Always", filmed on Bull Lake south of troy Montana.
https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnew ... .video.mp4

A1Skinner wrote:.... Matt, who had been "stranded" after landing and picking up a elk antler in the tire on his Stinson....

Pretty novel way to get a flat.

There has been a PBY sitting at the Ephrata, WA airport for several
years. I stopped there a few years ago and looked it over. It was a
mess. Pigeons had taken up residence in the fuselage and the engine
cowlings so piegon crap was in it and on it everywhere.

We were having coffee and donuts with our local EAA members last
Saturday and I brought up the PBY discussion ongoing on Fire Aviation
and a glider pilot mentioned the PBY at Ephrata as they park their
gliders right next to it.

I looked on google earth to see if it was still there and it was as of
July 2023. Google earth Photo attached.



I did a google search and found this article about it.
https://www.yoursourceone.com/columbia_ ... 54e99.html

tcj wrote:There has been a PBY sitting at the Ephrata, WA airport for several
years. I stopped there a few years ago and looked it over. It was a
mess. Pigeons had taken up residence in the fuselage and the engine
cowlings so piegon crap was in it and on it everywhere.

We were having coffee and donuts with our local EAA members last
Saturday and I brought up the PBY discussion ongoing on Fire Aviation
and a glider pilot mentioned the PBY at Ephrata as they park their
gliders right next to it.

I looked on google earth to see if it was still there and it was as of
July 2023. Google earth Photo attached.



I did a google search and found this article about it.
https://www.yoursourceone.com/columbia_ ... 54e99.html

There’s one in Moses Lake too. Kind of a hotspot for derelict Catalina’s around here.

There was kind of a funny little blowup on Facebook a year or two ago when a friend posted a picture he took in his 172 when he found himself head to head with a c-130 on a taxiway. Commenters were sure it was a screenshot from a flight simulator, and a big part of their reasoning was the presence of the PBY you could see in the background. They seem to think derelict PBYs only exist in flight sim backgrounds. Not true around here.