12/28/23 PBY Restoration Update on Vintage Aviation News
a 2023 Year in review on the CAF’s PBY Restoration effort.
5/19/23 Vintage Aviation news Update on the 3rd Annual Bong Open House
CAF Lake Superior Squadron 3rd Annual Bong Airport Open House (vintageaviationnews.com)
12/5/22 PBY Restoration Update on Vintage Aviation News
a 2022 Year in review on the CAF’s PBY Restoration effort.
CAF PBY Catalina Restoration Update – December 2022 (vintageaviationnews.com)
7/11/22 Local Aviator Receives Award and 2nd Annual Bong Open House
Lake Superior Squadron participated in the 2nd Annual Bong Open House where the award was presented.
11/20/21 Warbird News recently released an update on the Lake Superior Squadron’s PBY restoration project.
CAF PBY Catalina Restoration Update – Fall 2021 (warbirdsnews.com)
10/17/21 William Ward Wages Jr visited the Lake Superior Squadron on Oct 16th.
Ward is a World War II vet who trained on the PBY and flew PBM and P2V for the Navy during World War II and Korea.
6/16/21 World War II Plane Comes to Life!
On June 12th 2021, the Lake Superior Squadron’s OY-2 “Carin’ Belle” came to life for the first time since 2015 as the 1st Bong Airport Open House. Completing the full rebuild of the plane’s Lycoming O-435-1 engine marks a major milestone in the aircrafts restoration project. This was the culmination of thousands of hours of research and hard work by the volunteers of the Lake Superior Squadron.
The OY-2 is a World War II era Liaison plane, used for various roles including spotting, search and rescue, resupply, and transport. The OY-2 was outfitted to carry a stretcher and was also used as an ambulance. These versatile planes were affectionally known as “Flying Jeeps”.
“Carin’ Belle” began her life in 1945 with the Navy and was used by the Marines until 1949. It flew again in 1956 and was flown by many owners until it was donated to the Commemorative Air Force. In 2017, the plane was transferred to the Lake Superior Squadron who began restoring the engine and other systems needed to keep the plane flying well into the future. After its last flight in 2015, “Carin’ Belle” is expected to fly again in the Summer of 2021. An airworthy World War II era plane will help us fulfill our mission is to educate, inspire, and honor through flight and living history.
Coverage of Engine Start and the Open House can be found here:
KBJR (Link Removed)
12/1/20 PBY Catalina featured in the 2020 12 Planes of Christmas
For those interested in donating to our PBY Catalina restoration project, you can please follow this link:
If you want to check out all the featured planes, check out the following information
11/20/20 Recently the CAF hosted an interview of LSS members covering the status of the Squadron’s PBY restoration project. It covers the history of the squadron, the history of PBY’s, and the current status and future plans for the restoration of this beautiful plane!
11/12/20 Warbird news recently featured an article updating their readers on the status of our PBY – N7179Y.
7/4/20 July 4th was a big day for the Black Cat.
With the local fireworks and events being cancelled, we thought it fitting to honor the Black Cat squadrons of World War II, with a Stearman flyby as well as placing the Black Cat front and center for some of our own fireworks.
9/18/19 This week WDSE/WRPT will be featuring the Lake Superior Squadrons ongoing restoration of our PBY-6A. You can check this out (as well as more interesting things from the Twin Ports area) here:
https://theslice.tv/video/pby-catalina-restoration-commemorative-air-force (link broken)
7/16/19 Fox21 interviewed CAF-LSS’s own DeWayne Tomasek
Coverage about this Saturday’s big event and on our ongoing restoration projects, check it out here:
7/16/19 Katharine Huntley of Fox 21 Rides CAF Aircraft and Interviews members