Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Catalina Air Harbor - New on demand air carrier at Long Beach Airport

This morning while getting shots of the latest Indian Air Force C-17A, I discovered a new on demand operator Catalina Air Harbor. I spoke with CEO Mark Rhodes and General Manager Art Aritelli about their operation and found out some very interesting plans. The future holds some awesome plans which include the addition of a De Havilland Beaver on floats and a Grumman Goose.
 
The Goose harkens back to the glory days of seaplane operations between Long Beach and Catalina Island in the late 1950's and mid-1960's when Dick Probert operated a fleet of Grumman Gooses and the "Mother Goose" the VS-44 which is currently on display at the New England Aviation Museum.    
 
The De Havilland DHC-2 "Beaver" will see service on the Long Beach - Avalon route in the near future.
(Image provided by Catalina Air Harbor)   

The current aircraft in the fleet is Piper PA-32RT-300T "Turbo Lance II" (c/n 32R-7887148) N401SL.
 
(Photo by Michael Carter)
 
Check out their website at www.catalinaairharbor.com for more information on their services.

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