References: SIKORSKY VS-44 FLYING BOAT, by Harry Pember
New England Air Museum website www.neam.org
KNIGHTS OF AVALON, by David L. Johnston
"Last of the Big Water Birds", AIR PROGRESS Feb/March 1964, by Don Downie
Aircraft:
NC41881 "Excambian" built May 1942.
After serving with American Air Transport Excambian was used in charter services until 1948, but was impounded by the city of Baltimore for failure to pay storage fees.
In 1954 it was purchased by Hugh Wells's Aviation Exchange Corp., and it was re-furbished at a cost of $240,000 over the next two years. Wells had flown the Excambian to a non-stop distance record in 1946, going from Lima,Peru to New York City (3700 nautical miles) in 19 hours and 56 minutes.
For a time it was painted metallic blue over red, with silver control surfaces. The inaccurate name "Excalibur" was painted in large silver letters on the nose. Plans to use the VS-44 as a flying trading post in South America did not work out, and the plane was put in storage in Peru. At that time the paint scheme was overall white with substantial blue trim.
Wilton R. "Dick" Probert bought the Excambian in 1957 for Avalon Air Transport, later named Catalina Air Lines. He had quite an adventure getting the plane airworthy and flying it to California. He originally wanted to fly from Peru to Long Beach, CA non-stop, with 4200 gallons of gas on board. Engine problems and a takeoff accident ultimately forced the trip to be made in shorter segments.
Probert reconfigured the interior, removing the sleeping berths and increasing the passenger seating capacity to 47. He could not afford to keep a crew of 5 on the plane, so he had essential instruments moved from the flight engineer's station to the pilot/copilot area, and eliminated the flight engineer's station. Ultimately he removed the radio operator's and navigator's stations as well. The plane was re-painted in white and blue.
The plane was used for the short hop from Long Beach CA to Catalina Island, 27 miles in 12 minutes. It made 8,172 such trips in 10 years. Probert's wife Nancy was stewardess on 7,178 of those flights. It is estimated that 211,246 passengers were carried over that time. Excambian also made a few longer-range charter flights between Long Beach and San Francisco or Mexico.
The Long Beach Harbor seaplane base was at Pacific Landing, the site where the Queen Mary is permanently docked today.
On the Catalina side, the VS-44 was docked in Avalon Bay between Casino Point and Abalone Point, within sight of the famous Avalon Ballroom. When the VS-44 was pulled up to the dock, the fuel was all in the right wing, and the left wing was higher up in the air. The Catalina dock boys enjoyed climbing out onto the wing tip and making 20-foot dives into Avalon Bay.
The VS-44 made as many as 12 round trips a day between Long Beach and Catalina. In one month it carried over 10,000 passengers. In 1964 the one-way fare was $5.50. It only flew between April and September each year. The rest of the time it was beached for corrosion control and re-painting. On Wednesdays the VS-44 was used to bring freight (meat, frozen foods, bakery goods) to Catalina from Long Beach Harbor. Dick Probert, Jugs Burkhard, and John Pinney were the pilots.
When Dick Probert became 60 years old in 1967, he had to quit making scheduled flights, and he sold the Excambian back to Charles Blair for $100,000. Blair took the plane to the Virgin Islands where he operated Antilles Air Boats. The VS-44 was used for about a year, and then a landing accident damaged the plane to the point where it was unfeasible to repair it. It sat deteriorating on a ramp in St.Thomas for years, until in 1983 it was sent to the New England Air Museum for restoration. That was completed in 1998, and the plane is now the crown jewel of the museum's collection.
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The Air Progress article was sent to me by Rick Spork.
Accompanying timetable covers for Avalon Air Transport / Catalina Airlines were found on Bjorn Larsson's www.timetableimages.com.
The Avalon cover is from the collection of Don Henchel, and the Catalina cover is from the collection of Craig Morris.
