IAC alouette III video

clown2brown

Found this fantastic video of the air corps involvement with reek Sunday, Croagh Patrick 2007. Nothing beats the sound of the Artouste III engine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDKzO7E8aLk

poiuytsam

The allouettes are sadly history now , they lasted almost 35/40 years with air corps

poiuytsam

The AW 139 that they are flying now are some machine , the Gardai helicopter that is flow by the Air corps , is the still the most flown helicopter in Ireland

xflyer

I grew up with the sound of that helicopter almost every day. It's very distinctive. A high rattling jingle. I would have been three when I first heard it passing nearby. I think at this stage my ears must have the sound imprinted on the inner canals! Definitely since the time I flew in one. They were LOUD inside.

Hard to believe I'll never hear or see one again fly past again, on it's way to Dun Laoghaire from Baldonnel to practice or practising autorotations onto the airfield.

Actually it symbolised the Air Corps for many people being the only Air Corps aircraft most people ever saw.

Stovepipe

It sounds like a combination of a fire alarm and an industrial hoover from the outside. From the inside, you get to hear the gearbox as well. Great, great helicopter. One of the classics.

regards
Stovepipe

xflyer

Yes, a classic, when you're in one you cannot hear yourself. You have to shout at the guy beside you but you cannot even hear what you've said. What a chopper.

Delancey

There always seemed to be 1 buzzing about the Special Criminal Court which in those days was Green Street courthouse. Very distinctive noise alright.

snowserpeant

anyone else notice its number 212 in this video.the most photographed and videoed of all the irish alouettes:)

BrianD

How did the dispose of these machines?

snowserpeant

as far as i know 1 of them was written off in a crash. [i know 1 had a crash and was rebuilt and i believe that was aircraft nmbr 212 ironically] and some went to museams and i think there is also 1 retaind at baldonnel for the planned museam there but as for what happened to all of them im not sure

Tenger

xflyer wrote: »

I grew up with the sound of that helicopter almost every day. It's very distinctive. A high rattling jingle......

Actually it symbolised the Air Corps for many people being the only Air Corps aircraft most people ever saw.

Growing up on the border with an Defense Forces army base near my school, I think at least 1 class a day was interrupted by the sound of one of these either landing or taking off. We all just stopped for the few minutes it took for the process to be completed.

clown2brown

snowserpeant wrote: »

but as for what happened to all of them im not sure

They were bought by MAT aviation. Stripped down to the airframe and the parts were sold off to be used on Alouette 316's and 315b's currently flying throughout the world. A price of €1.431 million for the six Alouettes was paid.
IMO we should have kept them in service as there is still full support for parts. Alouette III's are still being flown by the Royal Netherlands Airforce, Portuguese Air Force, Austrian Air Force, French Navy, Indian Air Force, Indian Navy, Indian Army and Indian Coast Guard. Many other countries are still flying the Alouettes because they are far more cost effective to operate. The the air corps' more modern fleet is just too expensive for the tax payer and unjustified for the current operations that are carried out. I just can't understand why they sold the six machines off when they purchased two ec135 helicopters for €3 million a piece :mad:
Lets not forget about the Dauphins but thats another story altogether :rolleyes:

snowserpeant

the main reason why the air corps got rid of the dauphins is ,while they looked outwardly similar to other versions such as the type flown by the us coast guard [hh-65 dolphin] the irish models had avonics that were made to irish specs and due to the small size of the fleet [5 dauphins] it would have been cost prohibitive for the manufacturer to keep making the "irish spec" spares so when they were all used up the government /dod decided it was too dangerous to keep flying them [and the fatal crash of 1 of them in waterford in which all 4 crew were killed may have had a bearing on the decision] .....but from my own piont of view i just dont see why they just didnt refit them with the avonics from othet versions,after all the main reason they were bought in the first place was to replace the alouette on sar missions and the uscg are still using them for that very roll

Delancey

The LE Eithne was supposed to be able to handle the Dauphins , to my knowledge it never happened - why was this ?

I thought the USCG only use the Seahhawk for SAR ?

snowserpeant

she was able to handle the dauphins,naval co-op was another reason for buying them and i have several pics of dauphins on her heli-pad and even being refulled in the air whilst hovering over the heli pad.im sure the uscg still use their dauphins [hh-65 dolphin as they call it] for sar as its fitted with the rescue winch:)

crashplan

http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/showthread.php?87196-Beautiful-Warships&p=2324855&viewfull=1#post2324855

Pictures of a Dauphin on the deck of LE Eithne.

USCG still use the Dauphin for SAR http://www.uscg.mil/hq/cg7/cg711/h65s.asp

Klunk001

snowserpeant wrote: »

the main reason why the air corps got rid of the dauphins is ,while they looked outwardly similar to other versions such as the type flown by the us coast guard [hh-65 dolphin] the irish models had avonics that were made to irish specs and due to the small size of the fleet [5 dauphins] it would have been cost prohibitive for the manufacturer to keep making the "irish spec" spares so when they were all used up the government /dod decided it was too dangerous to keep flying them [and the fatal crash of 1 of them in waterford in which all 4 crew were killed may have had a bearing on the decision] .....but from my own piont of view i just dont see why they just didnt refit them with the avonics from othet versions,after all the main reason they were bought in the first place was to replace the alouette on sar missions and the uscg are still using them for that very roll

I believe a company from the US bought (Dauphine) airframes and spares for a song, refitted them out and sold them on for a fortune. Some ended up with the Chilean navy looking like new with others I believe are in service with the French navy at the mo.

snowserpeant

other than what you about some of them being in the french navy [not saying that is not the case,i did not hear that so you may very well be correct on that] you are spot on.that is EXACTLY what happened to them.and 1 of them was even painted in a sort of woodland type camo scheme and went on a sales tour to drum up some intrest for them before the chilliean navy bought some of them

Nforce

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Br1xcjgxVSY

Some pics here... http://www.kln.gov.my/web/chl_santiago/gallery?p_p_id=31&p_p_lifecycle=0&p_p_state=maximized&p_p_mode=view&_31_struts_action=%2Fimage_gallery%2Fview&_31_folderId=1026557

http://www.rotorleasing.com/AS365Dauphins.htm

xflyer

Delancey wrote: »

The LE Eithne was supposed to be able to handle the Dauphins , to my knowledge it never happened - why was this ?

I thought the USCG only use the Seahhawk for SAR ?

Actually it did happen. They were several cruises but apparently it wasn't a popular posting within the Air Corps. What's new?:rolleyes: I think probably that really neither the Navy or the Air Corps had any real interest in onboard helicopters and were probably at a loss to know what to do with them.

As for the selling them, this was discussed before. Each helicopter apparently cost £5m new, £3m went on the avionics which were state of the art at the time. But when it came to selling them they weren't worth much with the obsolete 'Irish Spec' fit. People who complained about them being sold cheap and sold on for a big mark up are simply unaware of how things work in aviation. As it is the were worth the price they were sold at. Clearly they were refitted and upgraded to the Chilean Navy spec by the vendor. That would have cost a lot. The mark up isn't likely to reflect the profit margin for the seller. In any case the Dept of Defence is not in the business of refurbishing and marketing surplus military aircraft. Imagine the disaster if they tried?

snowserpeant

Nforce wrote: »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Br1xcjgxVSY

Some pics here... http://www.kln.gov.my/web/chl_santiago/gallery?p_p_id=31&p_p_lifecycle=0&p_p_state=maximized&p_p_mode=view&_31_struts_action=%2Fimage_gallery%2Fview&_31_folderId=1026557

http://www.rotorleasing.com/AS365Dauphins.htm

excllent video,thanks for sharing.that is the exact ex iac camo painted dauphin i was talking about...and did you notice that in the video it still has the irish flag / tricolor on the tail:D