Loch Pattack
LOCH PATTACK: Temporary landing site
Picture by the author:
Location: To the west of the top (northern) part of Loch Ericht, about 15nm NNW of Kinloch Rannoch
NOTES: On the 18th September 2002, James Roland and myself set off in the Cessna FR172F 'Reims Rocket' floatplane G-DRAM to land in the "A to Z" of Scottish Lochs in one day. My role was simply as observer, to make notes, take the pictures and produce an article for FLYER magazine. We had to cheat somewhat as their were no Lochs starting with X, Y and Z, as Scottish Lochs have gaelic names. So we decided to replace these with the longest, deepest and largest Lochs, and in the end landed on twenty-nine Lochs that day.
As far as I am aware this is still a record - not that we set off to break any records - as the project was purely fun for our enjoyment, and the sense of having accomplished something unique.
I have singled out Loch Pattack as this was by far the smallest Loch we landed on, and to my untutored eyes it looked very small indeed - but James, bless him, had checked it out thoroughly beforehand. As befits a pilot whose day job is flying as a senior Captain with British Airways.
Incidentally, a few years later G-DRAM was converted to become an amphibian, but in those days it was a 'pure' floatplane. During that day I quickly became aware that a floatplane was by far the safest type of light aircraft in which to fly around such remote areas as it can be landed (given a highly skilled pilot such as James) not just on water, but grass meadows, bogs and similar should an emergency arise.
For a full list of the Lochs we landed on, see LOCH EARN where G-DRAM was based in those days.
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