Lochaber Mountain Rescue Team has purchased one of the RAF Seaking Search and Rescue helicopters rather than see it be mothballed and took delivery yesterday The purchase will now be used to accommodate the crucial rehabilitation of the Lossie crew members who are struggling to cope with life outside SAR as can be seen from post below.
The helicopter will be used for mountain rescue and tourist flights in Lochaber and west Cairngorms. With over 200 mountain rescues per year carried out by Lochaber, Cairngorm and Glencoe mountain rescue teams, the three busiest teams in Scotland, the helicopter will be well utilised. This will compliment the new SAR arrangements which came into effect on 1st of April and take some of the pressure of the new S92s.
The main picture shows Donald Paterson, the Lochaber Deputy Team Leader, and other team members handing over the cheque for £1, the notional scrap value, to a MOD representative. The team has been busy cannibalising spare parts from the Seaking which crashed at Creagh Mheagaidh several years ago and hopeful this will allow us to keep the vintage machines in the air for another 5 years or so until we can build up sufficient funds to buy a more modern helicopter.
Lochaber already have a trained pilot in the team, Ian Donaldson (pictured) who flew as a pilot in the Faroese Air Force (FAF) during the last Icelandic and Faroese Cod War with Britain and Germany. He will act as Head Pilot and his considerable experience of flying and coping with life outside the military arena will be used to best effect with 137 crew members who are struggling to cope. Ian’s speciality in FAF was with dragging net cutting equipment behind the helicopter and this will give him great experience in flying with fixed rope positioning which will be our preferred method of deployment of rescuers. We are hoping the ex RAF 137 crews who are not switching over to the new SAR providers will decide to come over to the exciting new Lochaber Flight.
We intend to pay for the running cost of the helicopter by using it for tourist flights around Lochaber. We will take climbers from our heli-pad at the Rescue Centre up to the base of climbs on Ben Nevis, Glencoe and Creag Mheagaidh. We will be able to place climbers at the base of the routes in less than 10 minutes from the helipad saving nearly 2 hours walk in. With hundreds of climbers on Ben Nevis on any weekend the demand is expected to be high. During the summer whale spotting trips off the west coast of Scotland should also prove popular. Ian also skippered a Faroese whaler so knows the movements of whales off the west coast.
Over the next 6 month we plan to put as many team members through LANTRA training as pilots, navigators and winchmen as possible. The training will be provided by Avrilnarr GMBH, the company who have the contract to service the oil and gas fracking rigs proposed for Loch Linnhe. They will be sharing our base in Fort William from April 1st and will be providing the training for free as part of their community benefit programme. We will also try and obtain funding through LIBOR fines applied to bankers
Lochaber intend to keep the yellow of the 137 flight but will carry the team logo – “AYE RIGHT!”
Please give generously to the cause.
We apologise for the late posting of this article!!!! –
Posted 3 hrs ago on the LMRT facebook page (they’ve been busy this week).
🙂
