How a Colombian Cat ended up in Hungary
In the same year (2019) in which the Dutch Catalina PH-PBY crossed the pond for a new owner in the USA, a Colombian PBY travelled the other way around, from South America to Europe. After twenty years of open storage at the airport of Villavicencio in Colombia, Catalina HK-2115P was dismantled and shipped through Cartagena in December 2017.

One month later it arrived in Bremerhaven, Germany and was then trucked to Molbergen, near Cloppenburg where it was stored in an electronics shop. But it was not before October 2019 that the dismantled Cat was transported to Meidl Airport, Fertoszentmiklos, Hungary. There, the local Rare Bird Aviation Ltd will submit the amphibian to a long term restoration to airworthy condition.

It will be very interesting to see what original identity is quoted in official paperwork as the restoration proceeds. For many years, the airframe has been attributed as ‘44-34012’, but this USAF OA-10A Catalina was lost in 1945. It is said to be one of thirteen Catalinas that were passed on to the Fuerza Aèrea Colombiana /SATENA (Colombian Air Force) in 1946. It was flown as FAC612 until 1974. In those days the aircraft was rebuilt with a PBY-6A tailplane, probably as the result of damage to the original tail. It was then registered as HK-2115X in 1982 becoming HK-2115 of Transportes Aereos Latinamericanos/TALA in 1994. Giovannio Borde of Villavicencio became the owner in 1995. He re-registered the Cat as HK-2115P. In 1997 the police impounded it at Villavicencio. The rest is history.

Photos: Attila Groszvald-Groszi, C.Good