Catalina Seaplane, The Flying Yachts
by Janet Elizabeth Lynn My husband, Will Zeilinger and I co-write the Skylar Drake Murder Mystery series, a hardboiled series that takes the reader to 1950s Los Angeles and other areas of the west. Our new book, Slick Deal, begins News Year's Eve 1956 at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, The first murder and clues lead to Avalon, Catalina. We discovered that Charlie Chaplin’s half-brother Syd began the first seaplane service to Catalina in 1919. It operated only for a couple of summers, when other firms moved in to operate the service until 1931. Researching Catalina in the 1950s we found that getting to Avalon was usually by ship but a seaplane also had regularly scheduled flights to the island. The Grumman G-21 Goose , twin-engined amphibious aircraft designed to serve as an eight-seat "commuter" aircraft for busin...