French Alpha Jets @ Baldonnel today

N7777G

Two French Air Force Alpha Jets arrived this afternoon on one of their now regular navigation training missions.

some pics :- http://www.flickr.com/photos/eigjb/tags/070410/

Absurdum

they will be departing @ 09:30 in the morning if you want to get some more pics

Steyr

9:30AM..........Way too early to be up after the Temple Bar Tactical Night Course:pac:

Dacian

Absurdum wrote: »

they will be departing @ 09:30 in the morning if you want to get some more pics

Unless they take off towards the East I won't be able to snap them.

chiefwiggum

seen one over dun laoighre...wondering what it was...knew it wasnt ours anyway

ian_m

Absurdum wrote: »

they will be departing @ 09:30 in the morning if you want to get some more pics

Ah balls. That's what I get for not reading this regularly...

Dacian

The missus spotted a Luftwaffe C-160 Transall heading towards Baldonnel earlier this evening, maybe about 7.30Pm.

I heard it but couldn't spot it, she knows I'm jealous. Showed her a few photos till she recognised it.


EDIT: 0905: just went over my gaff heading directly East. Checked www.radarvirtuel.com, routing as a military flight,doesn't show up on that site. Rising sun ruined my attempt to get a pic

N7777G

I'm pretty sure this is a case of mistaken identity and would guess it was an Air Corps Casa 235.
There are no reports on any of the usual sites about a German Transall being picked up on SBS anywhere in the Irish Sea vicinity either last night or this morning.

Sceptical!

Dacian

N7777G wrote: »

Sceptical!

I don't blame you for being sceptical, was myself until she explained. We live under the flightpath to Baldonnel so we are used to aircraft going overhead, usually the govt jet and/or CASA CN-235s.

She described the aircraft to me, having been with me when we spotted a C-130 (As well as a DC-8 and C-17) last year. Smaller but looks similar she says, with only 2 props. My immediate reaction was CN-235. But then she tells me it was camoflaged and had a German flag on the tail. I had a look at wiki, the Luftwaffe have C-160s but no CN-235s so thats why I assume it was that aircraft, then showed her a pic and she IDed the C-160. She also stated that the aircraft she saw had a larger flag than the pic on wiki. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Transall_C_160_02.jpg

I will accept that the aircraft the next morning I saw may well have been a CN-235 as the sun was in my eyes and I only saw the silhouette. All the IAC CN-235 are grey aren't they,just wondering how one of these could have looked camoflaged flying into the setting sun at approx 1830.

N7777G

Dacian

Having read your reply I'm even more certain that it wasn't a Transall!!

As I mentioned earlier no German Transalls have been reported on any of the spotters' sites that cover Ireland & the UK on either Monday or Tuesday. (In today's internet world pretty much anything that moves through the air is covered/monitored by these sites).

Even the most experienced spotter would find it very difficult to see the German flag on the tailfin unless they got an extremely good look at it with binoculars or a telesope. Indeed, the late evening sunshine of the last few days would have made it even more difficult to see the flag.

Air Corps Casa "Charlie 253" was monitored on Dublin ATC inbound to Baldonnel around that time.

Finally, The Irish Casas are light blue in colour and have a larger flag on the tail than that worn on German Transalls.

check these photos to compare the flags:-

http://www.flickr.com/photos/eigjb/4232816284/


http://www.flickr.com/photos/eigjb/3430755759/


N7777G

Dacian

N7777G wrote: »

Dacian

Having read your reply I'm even more certain that it wasn't a Transall!!

As I mentioned earlier no German Transalls have been reported on any of the spotters' sites that cover Ireland & the UK on either Monday or Tuesday................Air Corps Casa "Charlie 253" was monitored on Dublin ATC inbound to Baldonnel around that time

Lets meet up and you can explain that to her!!

I was very surprised at the lack of any photo evidence of German aircraft. The fact that an IAC CASA was inbound at that time seals the tale. I'm not going to tell her though.

Bit perturbed as the blue grey and the camo are pretty hard to confuse.

Absurdum

N7777G wrote: »

Air Corps Casa "Charlie 253" was monitored on Dublin ATC inbound to Baldonnel around that time.

Charlie 253 landed in EIME just after 19:30 local time that day indeed

Random

Can you pull up outside the airfield like Dublin Airport and take photos? Or do you have to be in a certain area?

Steyr

Random wrote: »

Can you pull up outside the airfield like Dublin Airport and take photos? Or do you have to be in a certain area?

The main road to EIME also runs behind 23 thats if its active. There are other back roads around EIME too but not as close as you would like to get but if you have a lens it shouldnt be a problem, on the other hand why not try arrange a Base visit??

ian_m

Steyr wrote: »

The main road to EIME also runs behind 23 thats if its active. There are other back roads around EIME too but not as close as you would like to get but if you have a lens it shouldnt be a problem, on the other hand why not try arrange a Base visit??

A base visit?? I didn't know you could do that...

N7777G

Random wrote: »

Can you pull up outside the airfield like Dublin Airport and take photos? Or do you have to be in a certain area?

Not really, the perimeter roads around Baldonnel are very narrow and there is nowhere to park a car safely. So the only option is to do it on foot and even then the road traffic on these roads can be quite busy during the day so its not the safest.

Having said that there are a few good locations around the perimeter roads where aircraft can be photographed while on approach or departure.

see examples on:-
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eigjb/sets/72157622803674597/

on finals to r/w 23
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eigjb/3486724330/

departing r/w 29
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eigjb/3385846510/

landing on r/w 29
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eigjb/3769962620/

departing r/w 11
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eigjb/4411893949/

departing r/w 23
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eigjb/3427638820/

HTH




All these were taken from outside the base

Steyr

ian_m wrote: »

A base visit?? I didn't know you could do that...

You can indeed, maybe best in a group, UK Spotters regularily go to EIME and they normally do base visits to places like Lakenheath too, Frequencydb.com had one to Baldonnel not too long ago.