Air Corps Helicopters over Dublin Bay

cianr

Lots of Air Corps helicopters operating over Dublin Bay and Port yesterday and in recent weeks-any ideas what they're up to?

Names

As far as i know, it is some sort of excersise, in dublin bay and out and back to kish lighthouse.....i dont know what exactly it is an excersise for

Jim236

Its a training exercise thats been going on for the last 2 weeks, and finished up today. Stena Line seemed to be very involved with it as they used their container yard as a landing base, and the navy boarded one of their ships last week.

Its obviously some sort of exercise to train for an attack on a port or something.

aviteire

cianr wrote: »

Lots of Air Corps helicopters operating over Dublin Bay and Port yesterday and in recent weeks-any ideas what they're up to?

Yea, wasting the tax payer's hard earned cash !

CaptainSkidmark

aviteire wrote: »

Yea, wasting the tax payer's hard earned cash !

LOL your shoulder must be in bits from carrying that chip around :rolleyes:

punchdrunk

aviteire wrote: »

Yea, wasting the tax payer's hard earned cash !

yeah I'd much rather we left those multi-million euro choppers we bought in the hangar,and let all those pilots we spent millions training maybe kick a ball around baldonnel or sweep the parade ground :rolleyes:

freakwencydb

It was a sneaky operation performed by the IAC when they knew all the CHC groupies were down at the Boating event in Waterford.
They must have been too busy to spot what was going on at the time.
Now all they can do is rant and rave about the waste of Europes money after the exercise.

Tabnabs

It was the first time I heard Dublin CG warn Mike Echo Sierra about traffic in the area The call sing was Wolf 3 or something similar for the IAC chopper

aviteire

CaptainSkidmark wrote: »

LOL your shoulder must be in bits from carrying that chip around :rolleyes:

And whos bright idea in the goverment was it to use an EC-135 (yes, an EC-135, twin turbine machine) to teach pilots how to hover! Evan the yanks put them in a single piston costing the tax-payer circa $300 an hour to operate before just to learn the basics!

Not Ireland however, we are much bigger than those stupid yanks who have idiotic accountants!
Lets train the art of rotoarycraft to fixed wing pilots on a machine that costs €2k an hour!

To be fair, they waste alot of money in how they operate.

From the smallest of things like teaching cadets to fly on a multi-million euro PC9 turbine aircraft and then sticking them into active duty on a €20,000 40 year old cessna 172?

Where is the logic in that?

IrishB.ie

aviteire wrote: »

And whos bright idea in the goverment was it to use an EC-135 (yes, an EC-135, twin turbine machine) to teach pilots how to hover!

Maritime Counter Terrorism exercise off the East Coast.

It was about hovering but with a more serious logic.

Jim236

aviteire wrote: »

And whos bright idea in the goverment was it to use an EC-135 (yes, an EC-135, twin turbine machine) to teach pilots how to hover! Evan the yanks put them in a single piston costing the tax-payer circa $300 an hour to operate before just to learn the basics!

Not Ireland however, we are much bigger than those stupid yanks who have idiotic accountants!
Lets train the art of rotoarycraft to fixed wing pilots on a machine that costs €2k an hour!

To be fair, they waste alot of money in how they operate.

From the smallest of things like teaching cadets to fly on a multi-million euro PC9 turbine aircraft and then sticking them into active duty on a €20,000 40 year old cessna 172?

Where is the logic in that?

I agree there is no logic in having a fleet of trainer aircraft without having a fleet of full-purpose fighter aircraft. The PC-9s wouldn't even meet the basic role of supporting the army on the ground.

But are you seriously suggesting that we outspend Americans when it comes to military training exercises, or military spending in general? The total Defence Forces budget is in the region of €1 billion a year, the Americans on the other hand give their forces a blank cheque which can run into hundreds of billions annually.

But as to what aircraft they were using for this exercise - they used 1 EC-135 and up to 3 AW-139s with just 2 used on most days of the training. If not these helicopters, what do you suggest they use given that these are the only helicopters in the air corps fleet? Do you think they should even have any training exercises full stop? And if so, how do you expect them to be prepared in a given scenario?

Biff Tannen

aviteire wrote: »

Yea, wasting the tax payer's hard earned cash !

Bloody sure they are!

I was at the Trim fly in bbq last week and not only the Garda in their chopper flew in for a few a free meal. But the Coast guard in the red sikorksy joined them as well. They are getting paid to waste gallons of fuel flying into remote airfields faffling around doing **** all.

They were there hovering at about 30 feet doing demonstrations for nearly 15 minutes. Now this machine must burn gallons of fuel each minute. It would be better used saving lives at sea.

Jim236

Biff Tannen wrote: »

Bloody sure they are!

I was at the Trim fly in bbq last week and not only the Garda in their chopper flew in for a few a free meal. But the Coast guard in the red sikorksy joined them as well. They are getting paid to waste gallons of fuel flying into remote airfields faffling around doing **** all.

They were there hovering at about 30 feet doing demonstrations for nearly 15 minutes. Now this machine must burn gallons of fuel each minute. It would be better used saving lives at sea.

So what, its a once off fly-in, no different to taking time out to take part in an airshow. I don't see whats wrong with them supporting community events like this? Its not like they do it every day.

And for what its worth, the Coast Guard has nothing to do with the Defence Forces and is a completely separate, privately run service contracted out by the government. The GASU is also merely operated by the Air Corps, but its the Gardaí who are responsible for telling them where to go.

Klunk001

Biff Tannen wrote: »

Bloody sure they are!

I was at the Trim fly in bbq last week and not only the Garda in their chopper flew in for a few a free meal. But the Coast guard in the red sikorksy joined them as well. They are getting paid to waste gallons of fuel flying into remote airfields faffling around doing **** all.

They were there hovering at about 30 feet doing demonstrations for nearly 15 minutes. Now this machine must burn gallons of fuel each minute. It would be better used saving lives at sea.

Ah, It must have been just awful for you having to sit through all that. So, why did you go then? And to look at exactly what. Those aircraft were there because they were invited to be there by the club, who wanted to show Joe public what all these assets are capable of. All were capable of responding to an incident if required. You should have put bah humbug at the end of your thread, and it's Sikorsky :-).

westdub

aviteire wrote: »

And whos bright idea in the goverment was it to use an EC-135 (yes, an EC-135, twin turbine machine) to teach pilots how to hover! Evan the yanks put them in a single piston costing the tax-payer circa $300 an hour to operate before just to learn the basics!

Not Ireland however, we are much bigger than those stupid yanks who have idiotic accountants!
Lets train the art of rotoarycraft to fixed wing pilots on a machine that costs €2k an hour!

Where is the logic in that?

The Air Corps operate the twin engined helicopters for training because they are a LOT safer than single engined ones...

They operated single engined gazelle's before the EC-135s and this is what happens when you suffer a engine failure during a low level training flight...
http://www.angelfire.com/theforce/not_important/gazelle_crash.html

So its a lot cheaper to operate the twin engines than replace the single engined ones when they get damaged....

freakwencydb

It must be awful for those failed air corps candidates to see those machines flying around, maybe they didnt even fail, more than likely they couldnt even apply as most of them wouldnt even have the basic requirements anyway.
The only seat those guys will sit in is the one in front of the pc allowing them to whinge and moan away at the IAC.
Sometimes they do venture out with their cameras and scanners ,they even meet up so they can have a group moaning therapy session ,where they can collectively run down the IAC.
What a bunch of loosers and wasters, go and do a proper leaving cert , get a degree and then apply.

scorpybear

freakwencydb wrote: »

It must be awful for those failed air corps candidates to see those machines flying around, maybe they didnt even fail, more than likely they couldnt even apply as most of them wouldnt even have the basic requirements anyway.
The only seat those guys will sit in is the one in front of the pc allowing them to whinge and moan away at the IAC.
Sometimes they do venture out with their cameras and scanners ,they even meet up so they can have a group moaning therapy session ,where they can collectively run down the IAC.
What a bunch of loosers and wasters, go and do a proper leaving cert , get a degree and then apply.

Ha ha, brilliant...

Klunk001

Ah, it’s the same old one size fits all sweeping reply, with no substance again. What exactly the Trim fly in and BBQ has to do with Air Corps helo’s over Dublin bay is anyone’s guess.

I have read your reply again Biff, so I will take the bait. I’m a bit confused, is your problem the waste of tax payers money as you see it, flying to Trim and winching or eating free grub and doing ” **** all”. Just so you can sleep easy tonight Biff:), I will attempt to answer some of your queries here, with some of the facts as I understand them. In turn maybe you could answer some of mine. One of the aircraft in question had planned to carry out a training exercise on that afternoon. This included a navigation exercise, confined area landings, and a winching exercise, all as part of the crew’s daily currency. Just like any training day really, the only difference being a land on and shut down at the airfield in question, which by the way doesn’t happen very often as not all invitations to these type of event are accepted.

However, this invitation was accepted as the club in question put forward a good case why the helo should pay a visit. In their eyes it was a chance for the public to get up close and personal, see just how their tax paying money as you put it, is being spent. Guess what... the sarex, winching ex and cal’s were all achieved during the training flight.
The helo burned the same amount of fuel at Trim Airfield as it would have behind any vessel in the Irish Sea, or beside a cliff doing the same winching exercise on that day. The plan was to land on for one hour, but because so many of the taxpaying public wanted to see the helo and ask the crew questions about the service they provides on behalf of this state, this was extended. Who knows Biff, maybe you were one of those people:D. The aircraft was on 15 minute readiness at Trim, the same as sitting on the ramp at Dublin and was carrying enough fuel (it has a big endurance) to comfortably carry out any tasking on behalf of Dublin MRCC within its area of operation (which includes Trim, by the way). In your eyes this is “faffling around doing **** all”:eek:

About your perceived waste of tax payer’s money, why didn’t you voice this to some of the crew while they were taking advantage of a “free meal” on the day, instead of using anonymity on a public forum to make a sweeping statement ?

“It would be better used saving lives at sea”.

Now, maybe you can tell me just how many lives were lost at sea? The mountains? Or for that matter, inland waterways? While this aircraft was at Trim on 15 min readiness.

Lapin

Christ - my eyes are sore now ^^^^^^


That coastguard machine also carried out a drill in Ballinasloe last week at an impressive display put on by the emergency services.

I was told there was two Air Corps choppers due to appear also, but they never turned up. (Probably busy out in Dublin Bay at whatever was happening there).

I'm all in favour of the Air Corps and Coastguard appearing at events like this. It gives the public an opportunity to see close up, the type of work they carry out, and generally gives people of all ages an appreciation for what they do.

And if such events encourage young people to consider a career in the emergency services then its no bad thing in my opinion.

As for the claim that it costs too much - I can think of many, many other areas where taxes can be saved before curtailing displays like this.


Got some nice pics last week too which I'll post in the gallery when I remember where I put my camera.

Tabnabs

Some great pics of the exercise from the official gallery
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dfmagazine/sets/72157623615393723/

ChicaneAuto

This is why I always log off boards after a few minutes, every bloody thread descends into infighting, trolling and bitching.
Arguments about arguments about the issue!
What the hell is wrong with peoples attitudes on here, theres always some smart c**t with sarcastic comment that starts a cat fight.No matter what forum your on.:mad:

MrVestek

ChicaneAuto wrote: »

This is why I always log off boards after a few minutes, every bloody thread descends into infighting, trolling and bitching.
Arguments about arguments about the issue!
What the hell is wrong with peoples attitudes on here, theres always some smart c**t with sarcastic comment that starts a cat fight.No matter what forum your on.:mad:

Wrong thread much?

ChicaneAuto

Thank you Achilles for providing me with a prime example.
Clearly more interested in arguing about the protocols and rules of Boards.ie than debating the actual content of the thread.

I will not be replying to any further posts on this thread, as this has all the hallmarks of exactly the kind of Boards Bitch Fight that usually follows a sarcastic rhetorical comment such as yours and to be frank I've better things to be doing.

MrVestek

ChicaneAuto wrote: »

Thank you Achilles for providing me with a prime example.
Clearly more interested in arguing about the protocols and rules of Boards.ie than debating the actual content of the thread.

I will not be replying to any further posts on this thread, as this has all the hallmarks of exactly the kind of Boards Bitch Fight that usually follows a sarcastic rhetorical comment such as yours and to be frank I've better things to be doing.

I'm sorry but what exactly are you talking about? You just dragged up a threat that's over a year old referring to something that doesn't seem to be part of the overall thread?

What's more you also seem to have registered a new username just to post on some random thread.

I'm not sure what you thought was going to happen to be honest, I'm sure you won't be any loss to the website.

andy_g

ChicaneAuto.

I dont even get your post? As you dig up a year old thread with no actual info to add to it.

Just seems like a bad attempt at trolling to me.