DC-3 in Galway

EI-EAY

Hi All,
There's a DC-3 with a turbine conversion doing a geo survey in the west and its based in Galway at the moment.

Its a basler BT-67 conversion.

Unusual aircraft in this part of the world.

ch252

indeed, I have a pic of it on approach on my phone but its crap quality, might put it up anyway later. Yeah I thought it was strange, extremely slow approach speed on it!

EI-EAY

The survey is over the midlands and quite low (80M)
http://www.airbornesurvey.com/index.html

highlydebased

http://shannonairportenthusiasts.net/photos/displayimage.php?pos=-1420

tracker-man

ya! Saw it the other day, didn't go in for a closer look though, but its a nice aircraft no doubt.

vulcan57

Nice to see a little variety at EICM. Looking forward to getting up there for a picture. Knowing my luck, it won't be there the day I decide to go. Is it out working every day? If so, anyone know rough times of depature and arrival back?

Steyr

She was there Sat night when i arrived back from Malaga but my camera's battery died.:(

deaddonkey

I'd like to see a t-67, not half as much as i'd like to get my hands onto a real dc-3 (again, thank you Yorkshire Air Museum)
i fully recommend a visit to that place if you're ever in York, they have some lovely stuff being restored, including a c-47.

ronnie3585

It's here for the next five or six weeks. Was talking to the crew on Saturday they're absolutely spot on, they let me have a look inside the aircraft. It's a fully reconditioned DC-3 with two new PT-6's strapped to each wing. The captain was saying that it cost about $5 million to restore the aircraft as it was stripped back to its bare aluminum and was then brought up to modern specs. Another $5 million was spent fitting the surveying equipment. It's a beautiful aircraft with some serious equipment.

ambasite

flew slow & low over Clarinbridge this evening, beautiful aircraft.

tracker-man

how low?

ambasite

tracker-man wrote: »

how low?

would just be guessing. 1000ft - 1500ft.

force eleven

ambasite wrote: »

would just be guessing. 1000ft - 1500ft.

Saw it this morning over us near Moate, very low and fast, only by checking out here did I realise what it was doing, my daughter thought it was an aircraft in trouble it was that low, 200-300 ft? I recognised it as a DC3, at least I got that right;)

(Made 3 or 4 passes around us between 7.30 and 9.30 in the morning)

EI-EAY

force eleven wrote: »

Saw it this morning over us near Moate, very low and fast, only by checking out here did I realise what it was doing, my daughter thought it was an aircraft in trouble it was that low, 200-300 ft? I recognised it as a DC3, at least I got that right;)

Yeah its flying at 80m so approx 260feet. Quite low by anyones standards let alone a big aircraft.

Why do you need to fly so low?
To obtain the data required the optimal flight height is 80m-85m. This is a compromise between the requirements of the survey technique which needs to get reasonably close to the ground (too high and the instrument in the aircraft would not detect any significant changes) and safety and environmental considerations. It should be noted that virtually all of this area has been previously over-flown at low levels within the last 10-15 years using other airborne survey techniques in some cases at lower altitudes with noisier planes and/or helicopters.