raf puma

television

any one else see the raf puma flying at low level over baldoyle this morning at approx 10.45,maybe it was at dublin airport and heading back to the uk as when i saw it it was heading out to see.it appeared to be coming from the portmarnock direction with portmarnock right behind it and no,i didnt mistake an air corps aw 139 for a puma as i know the difference between to 2 types esp at the low level this was at...no more than a few hundred feet...about 350/ 400:D

westdub

It was a French Army puma that you saw, its been here for a couple of days in Dublin and Cork..

arctan

should be back up that way soon, went down the east coast but is due to do touch and go's in baldonnell wit return to Dublin

television

cool.french army sounds better.hope to see it again

N7777G

It was this one:- http://flic.kr/p/dAqfUi

television

that sure does look like it,thanks for posting the pic [its ironic that i assumed it was raf and the registration number contains the letters "raf",ha ha]...maybe the dept of defence has taking its head out of its arse and finally decided to buy 1 on the qt...not bloody likley i know but not impossable either...on a serious note does any one know why its here and is it the only one that has come over?,thanks

markc1184

Is there a chance that helicopter would have been circling over Drogheda around 4 yesterday afternoon?

television

quite possable.reason i ask if its the only 1 is westdub said it was french army air corps/army aviation but from the pic its clearly french air force

television

markc1184 wrote: »

Is there a chance that helicopter would have been circling over Drogheda around 4 yesterday afternoon?

if you saw something that looked like it over drogheda then more than likley that is what you saw:D

N7777G

markc1184 wrote: »

Is there a chance that helicopter would have been circling over Drogheda around 4 yesterday afternoon?

No chance I'm afraid!

It departed from Dublin Airport yesterday morning on a navigation training mission to Cork and returned to land in Dublin just before 1500.

Growler!!!

television wrote: »

maybe the dept of defence has taking its head out of its arse and finally decided to buy 1 on the qt...not bloody likley i know but not impossable either...

Irish 242 was leased between June 1981 and June 1982. But was returned, some say due to the possibility of it being shot down along the border if mistaken for a British Army Puma by republicans. But more than likely cos it cost too much to operate.

ChicaneAuto

There was an AW139 flying very low level orbits and what seemed to be practice approaches from about 2pm till 5pm over Ballivor and Trim in Meath yesterday, any ideas what for? The fantasist in me wants to believe they were using ground penetrating radar to locate weapons dumps.

tippilot

ChicaneAuto wrote: »

There was an AW139 flying very low level orbits and what seemed to be practice approaches from about 2pm till 5pm over Ballivor and Trim in Meath yesterday, any ideas what for? The fantasist in me wants to believe they were using ground penetrating radar to locate weapons dumps.

The fantasist in you needs a slap.

ChicaneAuto

Haha, maybe so.

bluecode

No for stuff like that. They have this thing:



Their 'spyplane'

The AW139 pilot was probably buzzing his girlfriend's house.:p

Peregrine

bluecode wrote: »

No for stuff like that. They have this thing:



Their 'spyplane'

The AW139 pilot was probably buzzing his girlfriend's house.:p

Do they still have that??
That's the Garda plane right?
Part of me thinks I saw it inside their museum along with the Beechcraft last year

bluecode

No it's definitely very much operational. It's packed full of electronics and they don't like anyone getting too close as there's a lot of sensitive gear onboard.

Rumour has it that it's so heavily loaded that if they lost an engine the second wouldn't keep it in the air. Don't know how true that is.

ChicaneAuto

Can just imagine it being full of reel to reel recorders and water cooled mechanical calculators. Plus a coffee maker and donut oven.
Surely to god any equipment on it would have to keep it within the single engine performance envelope.

ChicaneAuto

Can just imagine it being full of reel to reel recorders and water cooled mechanical calculators. Plus a coffee maker and donut oven.
Surely to god any equipment on it would have to keep it within the single engine performance envelope.

markc1184

N7777G wrote: »

No chance I'm afraid!

It departed from Dublin Airport yesterday morning on a navigation training mission to Cork and returned to land in Dublin just before 1500.

Well that puts an end to that idea then! Reason I asked was because around about 4pm heading along the m1 home to Drogheda there was a grey/black coloured helicopter hovering over the town at what I'd consider a low enough height, it then headed off east towards the sea but then as I got further into the town it circled back towards we're it had come from. It circled 3 more times and then that was the last I seen of it. It wasn't one of the regular helicopters that can be seen overhead so thought it may have been the helicopter the OP posted about.