Prior to the arrival of the Canadair CL-215 water bombers, which were primarily designed for fire fighting, the skimmers of choice were converted, ex-military, Consolidated PBY-5A Cansos, or Catalinas as they are known Stateside. While not as maneuverable as the CL-215 and not as capacious, they did the job for a lot of years. This is a shot of Saskatchewan Govt. Tanker 9, taken east of Lac La Ronge, SK.

For more information and history on the Canso, see comments in the "Aviation-Static" section of this site.

Fred Paget, photographer