PBY-6A Catalina, Tail Number L- 866, Royal Danish Air Force. An old friend of mine!

The standard Danish Catalina colour scheme was beige grey fuselage and underwing surfaces with crimson upper wing surfaces for visibility on the ice, yellowish Dayglo on the nose, tail and floats and a large red/white Danish insignia on the fin/rudder.

 L-866

The RDAF began Catalina operations, initially an air survey of Greenland for preparation of accurate maps, in June 1947 with six ex Royal Canadian Air Force Canso As, numbered 82 851-856, supplemented in 1951 by two ex USN PBY-5As; by 1957 only four of these aircraft remained, and they were supplemented by eight ex USN PBY-6As, delivered to Esk (Squadron) 721 as 82-861-868, 63993 becoming RDAF 82-866, deliveries commencing 08 April 1957.

The Catalinas  were used for   SAR/maritime patrol/light transport duties in Denmark, the Baltic, West Greenland, East Greenland, the North Atlantic and Arctic areas, the main base being at Vaerloese, near Copenhagen, with detachments at Aalborg, Skrydstrop and Sondrestrøm. Difficulties with engine cooling delayed entry into Squadron service until 1958 -59.

 Soendrestroemfjord

From 1959 the Catalinas operated from the base at Narssarssuag in Greenland as Airgroup West all year round until a hangar fire in November 1963.

L-861 and L-866 Landing at Narssarssuag

From 1964 on, 866 operated from Narssasuaq in the summer, and from Sondrestromfjord, which had hangar facilities, in the winter. The main duties of Airgroup west were liaison flights to Groennedal Naval Base, ice reconnaissance, transport and SAR.

L-866 Cockpit

The normal crew of a Danish Catalina was eight - two pilots, two engineers, a navigator, radio operator and two observers, plus freight, e.g. food, coal or dog teams.

 Passenger Compartment with APU to the left.

By the 1960s the original R-1930-92 engines were replaced by R-1830-90Cs as used on the C-47 since these were easier to obtain and service. To simplify maintenance the same radar scanner and set as used on the C-54 was also adopted. All the Catalinas were re-skinned several times due to salt-water corrosion. By 1968 two of the PBY-6As had been destroyed in a hangar fire (862 and 864 in Nov 63), one (865) hit a mountain and one was crushed by ice.

L-866 Landing at Mestervig (Gravel runway)

866 Struck small iceberg during taxiing on sortie near Daneborg (HQ of the Sirius sledge patrol) on the east coast of Greenland, receiving major damage to the nose section, and was beached near the isolated outpost of Danesborg, where a temporary repair was made four days later and the aircraft flown to Mestersvig for further attention, where a full repair was made the following month.

Getting L-866 on dry land for temporary repairs.

In November 1970 the Final retirement of Catalina from RDAF service took place. 866 remained on charge but in open store. 861 was retained for the Danish Technical Museum at Helsingor; 863/8 were sold to the Larkin Aircraft Corporation for further service in the USA June 1972; 863 suffered a fatal crash at Harlingen, Texas on 13 October 1984 when flying with the Confederate Air Force; 868 having crashed in August 1975. In June 1972 866 was sold to RAF Museum for a nominal sum.

Getting cleaned before delivery to the RAF Museum

An unknown B&W photo of L-866, it looks like Narssasuaq