Garda Air Support Unit

fireplace1982

I saw in the news few weeks ago about the new heli arriving at HQ, i have heard varying rumours but can anyone confirm how to become a pilot in GASU, someone told me its not the Gardai who fly it but im not sure this is true, cant see why it would be. Also what is the perception on the streets from gardai about the effectiveness of the helicopters? Are they good value for money, looks like a bit of craic to me!

eroo

Air Corps fly it with 2 Garda crew.

It is a major assett(sp?) to GS,every Garda I have spoken to says it is extremely useful..

gerire

The aircorps fly the planes and every flight has a member of gs

fireplace1982

thaks for that, pity. I was told by a mate who knows someone in GASU that they were looking into getting Pilots from within the GS, any truth to this cos it makes complete sense to me. There has to be plenty of GS personnell out there with Flying hours under their belt. I know they operate out of an air corps base but that shouldnt mean the helicopter has to be flown by their people!

eroo

The pilots will most likely be Gardai in the near future...imo,it should and almost will be Gardai flying the fleet

cushtac

eroo wrote: »

The pilots will most likely be Gardai in the near future...imo,it should and almost will be Gardai flying the fleet

What are you basing this on? The Gardai never looked for their own pilots in the past, they were going to contract the flying out to a UK company that provided similar services to UK police forces.

Steyr

Operated and Maintained by The Air Corps and flown by them too, thats why they have Military Serials.;)

Steyr

Speaking of flying do An GS still have the Flying club??? Based at either EIDW or EIWT?? They flew a Cessna.

jj1310

Only military helicopters can fly at night over the city low level, ie with the use of flying on instruments, so reckon will always be AC personnel

TheNog

fireplace1982 wrote: »

I saw in the news few weeks ago about the new heli arriving at HQ, i have heard varying rumours but can anyone confirm how to become a pilot in GASU, someone told me its not the Gardai who fly it but im not sure this is true, cant see why it would be. Also what is the perception on the streets from gardai about the effectiveness of the helicopters? Are they good value for money, looks like a bit of craic to me!

The GASU are highly effective. One story I know to be true were three lads were rallying a stolen jeep around a quarry at 3/4 in the morning. Four gardai arrived just as the lads legged it into the darkness. With the help of the heli within 20 minutes all 3 were arrested. They were charged with being in a stolen jeep and for a burglary they had done in the area earlier.

Paulzx

Due to the Gasu aircrafts military registration they are exempt from all civil aviation regulations in this country. They must only conform to the air corps own air legislation. This allows the aircraft the flexibility to basicly do what they want. The pilots still have to obey the laid down military rules and standing orders as do the maintenance crews and they are answerable to the military authorities.

This arrangement allows much more flexible opearation than if they had civil tail numbers. They are rear crewed at all times by garda aircrews

Eru

When in use fantastic but only 1 crew on at any given time and only 2 scheduled flights per day. then they go off to Templemore etc for PR reasons.

Great tool wasted by simple penny pinching and Pr, as usual!

TheNog

Karlitosway1978 wrote: »

When in use fantastic but only 1 crew on at any given time and only 2 scheduled flights per day. then they go off to Templemore etc for PR reasons.

Great tool wasted by simple penny pinching and Pr, as usual!

Are you serious? 2 flights a day? Good god I hope you are mistaken.

How are the tax payer supposed to get their moneys worth if the GASU is restricted to 2 flights a day? I visited the GASU site before christmas and they never said anything about that.

Eru

TheNog wrote: »

Are you serious? 2 flights a day? Good god I hope you are mistaken.

How are the tax payer supposed to get their moneys worth if the GASU is restricted to 2 flights a day? I visited the GASU site before christmas and they never said anything about that.

Yes I am, they only have two scheduled flights a day, after that they have to be called out which means getting ready, taking off and then getting there.

Need more helicopters and crews so it can be up a hell of a lot more frequently. BUt try to remember it costs thousands to run even those scheduled flights.

TheNog

Karlitosway1978 wrote: »

Yes I am, they only have two scheduled flights a day, after that they have to be called out which means getting ready, taking off and then getting there.

Need more helicopters and crews so it can be up a hell of a lot more frequently. BUt try to remember it costs thousands to run even those scheduled flights.

Ah right I get ye now. The scheduled flights can be patrols or other jobs they do such as aerial photography and the likes. I remember they telling me that.

Yeah they did say that any calls they get from stations, they themselves decide if the call is worth going to or not. Also depends if they are busy at the time too.

Taradusk

Steyr.
Operated and Maintained by The Air Corps and flown by them too, thats why they have Military Serials.

Incorrect. Aircraft are operated and owned by An Garda Siochana. Helicopters are maintained by a civilian contractor, the plane by the Air Corps. All are crewedrewed by Air Corps Pilots and Garda Observers.

PaulZX.
Due to the Gasu aircrafts military registration they are exempt from all civil aviation regulations in this country.

Incorrect. Only exempt from civil aviation rules while in Military air space.

Paulzx

Taradusk
"Incorrect. Only exempt from civil aviation rules while in Military air space."

Incorrect exempt everywhere. Obviously must be in contact with Dublin airport atc if trying to enter their airspace etc. but they can fly, land and hover over civilian areas taking heed to the air corps aviation legislation and not civilian

jj1310

TaraDusk

Due to the Gasu aircrafts military registration they are exempt from all civil aviation regulations in this country.

Incorrect. Only exempt from civil aviation rules while in Military air space

Actually incorrect because they are allowed to fly over the city low level at night without instruments.

TheNog

jj1310 wrote: »

TaraDusk

Due to the Gasu aircrafts military registration they are exempt from all civil aviation regulations in this country.

Incorrect. Only exempt from civil aviation rules while in Military air space

Actually incorrect because they are allowed to fly over the city low level at night without instruments.

Paulzx wrote: »

Taradusk
"Incorrect. Only exempt from civil aviation rules while in Military air space."

Incorrect exempt everywhere. Obviously must be in contact with Dublin airport atc if trying to enter their airspace etc. but they can fly, land and hover over civilian areas taking heed to the air corps aviation legislation and not civilian

Would it be funny or worrying if both of ye were in the GASU?

CharlieCroker

fireplace1982 wrote: »

I saw in the news few weeks ago about the new heli arriving at HQ, i have heard varying rumours but can anyone confirm how to become a pilot in GASU, someone told me its not the Gardai who fly it but im not sure this is true, cant see why it would be. Also what is the perception on the streets from gardai about the effectiveness of the helicopters? Are they good value for money, looks like a bit of craic to me!

The GASU aircraft are ALL flown by member's off Irish Air Corp while the observers are serving Gardai. If you wanna be the one at the controls, its an Air Corp cadetship you want

Steyr

Taradusk wrote: »

Incorrect. Aircraft are operated and owned by An Garda Siochana. Helicopters are maintained by a civilian contractor, the plane by the Air Corps. All are crewedrewed by Air Corps Pilots and Garda Observers.

from www.garda.ie

Garda Air Support Unit
The Garda Air Support Unit (GASU) became operational in September 1997 when it took delivery of a fixed wing Pilatus Britten-Norman BN 2T-4S Defender 4000 aircraft and a Eurocopter AS355N Squirrel Helicopter.

In 2001 the GASU fleet was further increased by the addition of a second helicopter, an EC 135 T1.

The aircraft are on the Irish military register. The Air Corps provide pilots and maintain the aircraft on behalf of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform and An Garda Síochána.

The aircraft were selected to meet the operational policing needs of An Garda Siochana. All aircraft are fitted with the latest police role equipment including state-of-the-art daylight and thermal image (infra red) cameras, mounted on a gyro-stabilised pod.

The Air Support Unit is based at Casement Aerodrome, Baldonnel, Co. Dublin and is a national resource under the operational control of Deputy Commissioner, Operations.
__________________________________________________________


Needs to up updated on that site but afaik its Mc Alpine who service them.

afatbollix

does any one know can the helicopter can a sick person? to hospital? lets say from a bad car crash or the like?

cushtac

anto-t wrote: »

does any one know can the helicopter can a sick person? to hospital? lets say from a bad car crash or the like?

None of the GASU aircraft are set up for medical roles.

Taradusk

Fixed wing, BN2T4S DEfender 4000 maintained by the Air Corps.
EC 135T2 maintained by Eurocopter UK (formerly Mc Alpine).
EC 135T2+ :Dmaintained by Eurocopter UK (formerly Mc Alpine).

Taradusk

PaulZX said,

Incorrect exempt everywhere. Obviously must be in contact with Dublin airport atc if trying to enter their airspace etc. but they can fly, land and hover over civilian areas taking heed to the air corps aviation legislation and not civilian

Afraid not! They are subject to International and Irish Laws of the Air outside their own patch.

ivanthehunter

every town needs a "GETTO BIRD" :Dgreat tools but should have more..

BeardyGit

Taradusk wrote: »

Fixed wing, BN2T4S DEfender 4000 maintained by the Air Corps.
EC 135T2 maintained by Eurocopter UK (formerly Mc Alpine).
EC 135T2+ :Dmaintained by Eurocopter UK (formerly Mc Alpine).

Wrong. All 3 aircraft are maintained by Air Corps maintenance crews.

Eurocopter UK are the distributor for Eurocopter and carry and manage the service and parts inventory for the british isles, along with operating their own service centres (2) in the UK. The Air Corps technicians avail of a reserved/secure supply of parts on a maintenance supply contract via Eurocopter, but this does not mean Eurocopter are the actual maintainer of the helicopters in question. Where required, an aircraft may be sent back to the manufacturer for retrofit upgrades and replacements along with major airframe and componentry swap-out - This is NOT routine and regular maintenance.

Likewise, spares and airtime related service items required for the Britten Norman Defender are provisioned under a logistics contract to trained Air Corps aircraft maintenance technicians, but this doesn't mean BN maintain the aircraft.

Get your facts straight.

Taradusk

No point argueing with you lads! You are all GASU experts, like me!

The facts remain,

Fixed wing, BN2T4S Defender 4000 maintained by the Air Corps.
AA355N WAS maintained by the Air Corps.
EC 135T2 maintained by Eurocopter UK (formerly Mc Alpine).(AT BALDONNEL)
EC 135T2+ maintained by Eurocopter UK(formerly Mc Alpine).(AT BALDONNEL)

GASU fly over Dublin and congested areas at Night in Helicopters under Civil Special Night VFR Rules and by agreement with the IAA.

The Air Corps while on their own Register, must comply with Civil Aviation Rules in Controlled Air Space.

An Cigire

I see the defender has got a new more minimal paint scheme loosing the yellow border. Any reason for this? Looks more like air corps a/c then a Garda a/c more then ever now

kub

Its pay back time for all the branch cars that were marked up and converted into regular patrol cars over the last few years .

goldie fish

An Cigire wrote: »

I see the defender has got a new more minimal paint scheme loosing the yellow border. Any reason for this? Looks more like air corps a/c then a Garda a/c more then ever now

The nature of its duties require it to be low profile. Dayglo yellow stripes and "Garda" in big letters does not help in this role.