Escape from Loch Ness - The Rescue of Catalina Miss Pickup

[CharlieOneSix]

This is a 47 minute documentary of the rescue of Miss Pickup from Loch Ness after an engine failed to start. It's on BBC iPlayer and the channel is BBC ALBA. It's in Gaelic and English with English subtitles where necessary...
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m ... -loch-ness

[PHXPhlyer]

https://www.catalina.org.uk/

Loch Ness Greetings Cards Now Available
By David Legg17th December 2020Latest News, Press & Video
0 Comments
As promised, we are pleased to announce that our new range of greeting cards has arrived and are now available for sale in The Catalina Society shop.
These cards are printed on high quality card and dimensions are 180mm x 130 mm (7″ x 5″) approx. There are two separate designs available. The first is ‘Loch Ness Adventure’, to remember that ‘scary’ night on Loch Ness and the second is ‘Skimming The Waves’. Both these cartoons are the exclusive work of Jason Hall who is a tremendous supporter of G-PBYA, Miss Pick Up. He has gifted this wonderful artwork to us to support our operation.
These cards are blank for your own message and may be purchased at £2.50 each or at the special price of £10 for 5 (5 for the price of 4).
We have many other merchandise items available. All profits go straight back into support the operation of the aircraft.
Loch Ness Merch

2424
Sale!

Key Ring – Miss Pick Up
£3.00 £2.70
Add To Basket Quick View

Greetings Card – Skimming The Waves
£2.50 – £10.00
Select Options Quick View

Greetings Card – Loch Ness Adventure
£2.50 – £10.00
Select Options Quick View
Sale!

Metal Sign – Nose Design
£11.00 £9.35
Add To Basket Quick View
Sale!

Money Box – Loch Ness Adventure
£7.50 £6.75
Add To Basket Quick View

Fridge Magnet – Loch Ness Adventure
£2.00

PP

[PHXPhlyer]

https://www.catalina.org.uk/

Loch Ness Greetings Cards Now Available
By David Legg17th December 2020Latest News, Press & Video
0 Comments
As promised, we are pleased to announce that our new range of greeting cards has arrived and are now available for sale in The Catalina Society shop.
These cards are printed on high quality card and dimensions are 180mm x 130 mm (7″ x 5″) approx. There are two separate designs available. The first is ‘Loch Ness Adventure’, to remember that ‘scary’ night on Loch Ness and the second is ‘Skimming The Waves’. Both these cartoons are the exclusive work of Jason Hall who is a tremendous supporter of G-PBYA, Miss Pick Up. He has gifted this wonderful artwork to us to support our operation.
These cards are blank for your own message and may be purchased at £2.50 each or at the special price of £10 for 5 (5 for the price of 4).
We have many other merchandise items available. All profits go straight back into support the operation of the aircraft.
Loch Ness Merch

2424
Sale!

Key Ring – Miss Pick Up
£3.00 £2.70
Add To Basket Quick View

Greetings Card – Skimming The Waves
£2.50 – £10.00
Select Options Quick View

Greetings Card – Loch Ness Adventure
£2.50 – £10.00
Select Options Quick View
Sale!

Metal Sign – Nose Design
£11.00 £9.35
Add To Basket Quick View
Sale!

Money Box – Loch Ness Adventure
£7.50 £6.75
Add To Basket Quick View

Fridge Magnet – Loch Ness Adventure
£2.00

PP

[TheGreenGoblin]

This is a 47 minute documentary of the rescue of Miss Pickup from Loch Ness after an engine failed to start. It's on BBC iPlayer and the channel is BBC ALBA. It's in Gaelic and English with English subtitles where necessary...
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m ... -loch-ness

This looks very good. Will definitely watch it... thank you for posting such good aviation related stuff.

I don't know if anybody remembers the story, or rather the Channel 4 BBC (of course) documentary, about the team, led by some French bloke, who wanted to recreate the Empire flying boats route using a Catalina on the east coast of Africa... the first flight was a great adventure, totally impractical of course. If I can find it I will post it here. In the interim I post this.

[TheGreenGoblin]

Found it. Trip undertaken by Alexander Frater ... (RIP).

[admin]

Haven't had time to watch the whole video GG, but will do. I do recollect a "Cat" flying down, planning on heading for Cape and stopping off at Germiston Lake/Rand enroute in the early seventies. I, plus a motley crew of engs, had agreed to be on stand-bye should there be a need for services. It never turned up. The reason given was that they had landed on some lake up north and then been unable to take off with sufficient fuel for the next leg.

Being a flying boat the crew had assumed that all takeoff and landings would be at close to sea level. I think it was Lake Tanganyika, or thereabouts where they came unstuck. The lake surface was at some altitude, and given the climatic heat levels there, the aircraft couldn't generate enough lift to get off again even before first light.

Flying in PNG and Southern Africa you get used to lifting off at first light full, or later empty. OAT's and associated times are an integral part of flight planning. A strip might be long enough at the break of dawn, but a couple of hours later no chance.

Alison

[Ex-Ascot]

I missed this in the news when it happened: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... ilure.html

The pilot and a Catalina Society founding member is Paul Warren Wilson, an old mate whom I went through flying training with. The second founding member John Watts was also an old mate whom I went through training with. Unfortunately he was killed in an aircraft accident. The three of us along with a RN course mate, Steve Thomas took a light aircraft down to the south of France to celebrate the end of our course. Below Paul, Steve and John. Paul flew the Catalina over the church at John's funeral. He was VERY low. I arranged for one of those side observer windows to be flown back from the States on a VC10. He still owes me a flight for that.

[Ex-Ascot]

One of their new greeting cards PP mentioned (twice ). https://www.catalina.org.uk/

[TheGreenGoblin]

I missed this in the news when it happened: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... ilure.html

The three of us along with a RN course mate, Steve Thomas took a light aircraft down to the south of France to celebrate the end of our course.

Robin DR400. Lovely aircraft.

[TheGreenGoblin]

Haven't had time to watch the whole video GG, but will do. I do recollect a "Cat" flying down, planning on heading for Cape and stopping off at Germiston Lake/Rand enroute in the early seventies. I, plus a motley crew of engs, had agreed to be on stand-bye should there be a need for services. It never turned up. The reason given was that they had landed on some lake up north and then been unable to take off with sufficient fuel for the next leg.

Being a flying boat the crew had assumed that all takeoff and landings would be at close to sea level. I think it was Lake Tanganyika, or thereabouts where they came unstuck. The lake surface was at some altitude, and given the climatic heat levels there, the aircraft couldn't generate enough lift to get off again even before first light.

Flying in PNG and Southern Africa you get used to lifting off at first light full, or later empty. OAT's and associated times are an integral part of flight planning. A strip might be long enough at the break of dawn, but a couple of hours later no chance.

Alison

The trans-African Catalina idea continued for a short while under the management of the indefatigable Frenchman Pierre Jaunet. His flying safari company folded some years back unfortunately but his land based outfit was still extant I beleive.

http://www.michaelprophet.com/News_arti ... anCat.html

If there was an award for the ultimate aviation enthusiast/travel adventure, the Catalina Safari Company would be in the finalists. Owned by Frenchman Pierre Jaunet, Catalina Safari launched its unique trip in 1988, from Cairo, Egypt, to the Victoria Falls, 3,600mi to the south with a Consolidated PBY Catalina amphibian!
Pierre Jaunet and his wife Antoinette had conducted overland safaris to the remotest and wildest corners of Africa for 20 years. Thinking of new twists to the traditional safari, the idea came to Pierre when he spotted some old floating docks on the Nile, a vestige of Britain's Imperial Airways' Cairo to Cape Town service of the 1930s. Why not a similar trip in the '80s, travelling the same route? Almost three years was spent securing permits for this complex itinerary and during this time Pierre also searched for a suitable flying boat. A friend who lived in Botswana suggested a Catalina and the hunt was on.

Eventually, a Catalina was located at Reno, Nevada, in good condition and with only 13,035 hours flight time since new from the Canadian Vickers factory at Cartierville, Montréal, in 1944. The aircraft, a PBY-5A Canso A (the Canadian name for the Catalina) registered C-FJCV, had been delivered to the Royal Canadian Air Force in March 1944 and had served until June 1947, logging only 1,142 hours. Her whereabouts for the next eight years are a mystery, but in 1955 the PBY turned up at the SALA maintenance facility at San José, Costa Rica, and was converted to passenger configuration. In July 1956, a Lee Crutchell sold the Catalina to Eastern Canada Airlines which used the aircraft until May 1960, except for a five-month lease to Notre Dame Airways the following year. Austin Airways then acquired CF-JCV and kept her for 16 years until she was sold to Aero Trades of Winnipeg, Manitoba, in September 1976. In March 1982, the PBY was again sold, this time to a new company called Air Caledonia. Based in British Columbia, the PBY was used mostly to fly fishermen into three camps in the province. A Convair 440 replaced C-FJCV in summer 1986, and she was flown to Reno for storage pending sale.

Catalina Safaris acquired the PBY for $150,000 in summer 1988, and flew her to Sydney, Vancouver Island, for maintenance and refurbishment. Wide doors were opened up through the interior partitions and windows added for enhanced passenger visibility. The forward cabin was divided into two sections, each with eight comfortable seats, and a small galley and bathroom added. In the rear cabin, the viewing blisters were retained and this area converted into a sitting room, complete with a well-stocked bar and a library of African maps, travel, and vintage aviation books. The marathon ferry flight to Africa was accomplished in October 1988, the longest sector being Gander—Santa Maria (Azores) in eleven hours, and a proving flight—filmed by the BBC for a documentary program—followed to Victoria Falls. The return trip, starting December l, was the first revenue flight by Catalina Safaris.

[TheGreenGoblin]

A shot taken by me of Miss Pickup early last year before her engine problem. She is now back at Duxford.

[TheGreenGoblin]

Found it. Trip undertaken by Alexander Frater

His book "Beyond the Blue Horizon" is a must read.

I didn’t doubt – with all kinds of weather; at this time of year, down beyond the intertropical front, there were likely to be cloud formations unimaginable in Europe, their vast, turbulent interiors rocked by forces able to break the backs of eagles. I imagined getting caught in one, booming with thunder and full of gaudy fire, aboard some small, ageing aeroplane buckling from metal fatigue and flown by a pilot with a severe personality disorder.

Frater, Alexander. Beyond The Blue Horizon

[PHXPhlyer]

Ex-A:
Sorry for the double post.
Don't know what happened.
I can assure that it won't happen again (til the next time).

PP

[TheGreenGoblin]

This is a 47 minute documentary of the rescue of Miss Pickup from Loch Ness after an engine failed to start. It's on BBC iPlayer and the channel is BBC ALBA. It's in Gaelic and English with English subtitles where necessary...

Fascinating and great documentary on the marque, the rescue, repair and return to Duxford of the current Miss Pickup, with the story of the Catalina abandoned on the Saudi beach and the sad story of the original Miss Pickup in WW2 as great bonuses as well. Very good documentary.



The scenes around the Loch make me desperate to get up over the Great Glen ASAP...

[CharlieOneSix]

.....The scenes around the Loch make me desperate to get up over the Great Glen ASAP...

A dangerous place - not because of Nessie though. Many years ago during a filming job on the loch I had a one Tornado go under me and another over the top...at the same time! I had filed a CANP activity but obviously the message didn't get through.

[PHXPhlyer]

Good thing it wasn't a three ship!

PP

[TheGreenGoblin]

Plenty of wires strung across the narrower parts of the Glen as well! No point in flying up there unless you keep reasonably low!

[Ex-Ascot]

Ex-A:
Sorry for the double post.
Don't know what happened.
I can assure that it won't happen again (til the next time).

PP

Think we have all done it PP. I usually spot it in time and delete.

Unfortunately we can't watch the clip it says UK only. I will see if it is on You Tube even then it will be difficult with the internet speed here.

[Ex-Ascot]

All I could find was Paul with his begging bowl out.

[TheGreenGoblin]

All I could find was Paul with his begging bowl out.

Pretty good "beggar"! They received about £30,000 within just over a month.

I am going to set up a Goblin "Flying Fund" appeal!