Flying boat in need of Loch Ness sponsor

The owners of a Second World War flying boat stranded on Loch Ness have launched an appeal to raise £20,000 to save it.

Miss Pick Up suffered engine trouble while trying to take off from the loch at the weekend and had to be towed to safety.

The plane has been moored on the water since.

It is one of the world’s only airworthy Catalina flying boats and is operated by Plane Sailing in Duxford, Cambridge.

The owners had hoped the plane had encountered minor engine trouble and could be flown home.

But they have revealed engineers will have to undertake a complete right engine change that will mean the huge plane has to be lifted from the water by crane for repairs.

It will then be returned to the loch before being flown back to Duxford, but the aircraft’s owners fear it could suffer permanent damage unless it is taken out the water and repaired.

An appeal on GoFundMe that aims to raise £20,000 to pay for the operation has already gathered £ 9,446 from generous donors.

Organiser Matt Dearden said: “What was originally thought to be just a faulty starter motor has turned out to be something inside the engine itself shearing.

“The only solution is to change the engine and send the damaged one off for overhaul. The aircraft is currently moored to a buoy in the middle of the loch as it’s too large to enter any of the docks.

“As you can imagine the logistics involved are massive. In order to get the aircraft back to Duxford we need to extract her from the loch as soon as possible so the damaged engine can be replaced.

“Once that’s completed, we then need to put her back on to the loch so she can be flown home.

“Otherwise she will be at the mercy of the harsh Scottish winter on a loch – which as we all know is home to a certain wee beastie – rather than her usual cosy hangar in Duxford. The damage this could do to the aircraft could be irreparable.”

Miss Pick Up’s chief pilot Pa u l Wilson added: “Unfortunately all this has come for us, like so many other businesses and people this year, at the end of a pretty rough season.

“Normally we fly 20 airshows a year. This year we have done two. So it has not put us in the best of positions.

“The plane is run by a group of volunteers but we are not in the best position financially to take on a load of extra costs like this.”

The four crew found themselves adrift after the aircraft suffered engine trouble while trying to take off on Saturday.

RNLI volunteers towed it to a safe mooring but its size made it a difficult operation.

David Ferguson of the Loch Ness lifeboat crew said: “Towing the Catalina would prove to be no easy feat.

“Fixing points are few and far between on such an aircraft and the best option was under the tail, which barely cleared the bow of the lifeboat. Nevertheless, with some care, we managed to establish a towline.”

BIG CATCH: The Catalina being towed to safety on Loch Ness by lifeboat crew.