What's your favourite helicopter which has operated in Ireland?

skallywag

This has to be mine by a long shot.

That thumping sound from the blades ...

Tabnabs

The only chopper I've been up in in Ireland and on that basis...

skallywag

Also a fine choice. She tended to be away a fair bit from base servicing the lighthouses and what not, whereas the 212 would fly out at least once a day to the gasfields off Kinsale.

Sterling Archer

This beauty



But any of the below are a great choice

Skylinehead

Do the Chinooks from Obama's visit count?

skallywag

The intention was more focused on EI- reg aircraft, but I suppose a few guest choppers could also be entertained :-)

On that score I would pick when there was once some Jolly Green Giants passing through at Cork Airport.

EICVD

Not EI registered but Ballymore Properties Sikorsky G-LJRM. Galway & Punchestown race festivals (or any big race meeting really!) were not only about the racing when helicopters used to regurlarly pop in

smurfjed

Yikes... i remember the day it arrived :)

Photo taken from this website, it also has a great list of Irish helicopters ..http://homepage.eircom.net/~eihelicopters/index2.htm

dogmatix

Has to be the Alouette III - such a common sight in the 1970's and 80's. And there was something about the shape of it that really appealed to me. For me the Alouette and Fouga's where practically a Aer Corp trademark, in a way that no aircraft since has managed to be.

skallywag

smurfjed wrote: »

Photo taken from this website, it also has a great list of Irish helicopters ..http://homepage.eircom.net/~eihelicopters/index2.htm

Good site that, though they are still missing the original 212 which I posted

BTW the same 212 actually had a sad ending. It left Irish Helicopters when the Kinsale gas field contract was lost, and ended up operating in Nigeria, only to be involved in an accident with multiple fatalities (tail boom failure).

skallywag

Must also agree that the Alouette III was a fine chopper. I can recall several being stripped to the bone during OH at the Cork IHL hangar. Fantastically built helicopter.

conork93

Its gotta be EI-SAR operated by the Irish Coast Guard. What an absolute machine it was. Pity its retired now. Sad to see it go.

http://www.kinsaleangling.com/gallery/v/Ships_and_Boats/irish_coastguard/EI_SAR.jpg.html?g2_imageViewsIndex=1

Pat Dunne

Has to be the Puma's that the the IAC operated for a short spell in the early 1980's.

I was also very lucky to get a spin in Alouette No 213 which was stationed in Monaghan Barracks during a time I was on duty there.

S-76s that used to operate around the country

youtheman

I've flown (in Ireland) in an Alouette, Gazelle, Dauphin, Bell 212, S61, EC135 and Bolkow 105. Hard to know which is the best, but for sound (externally) it has to be the Bell 212.

EchoIndia

Pat Dunne wrote: »

Has to be the Puma's that the the IAC operated for a short spell in the early 1980's.

There was just the one Puma, serial 242.
242 SA.330J Puma by Irish251, on Flickr

And as it was in later life:
1240 / AT SA.330 Puma by Irish251, on Flickr

Preset No.3

I am going to go with the Alouette. For me it conjures up childhood memories of it flying over my house on a regular basis to the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Dun Laoighaire. I would see it at least once a week. Also, again when I was a child and would spend summers up in Bundoran around the late 80s you would see it on approach to Finner Camp. It had a very distinctive sound when it flew through the air. The Alouette wasn't a pretty helicopter but it was like that ugly girlfriend that you still had a thing for.

Growler!!!

The bosses old one. Loved handling this machine the crew were top notch and very experienced in both fixed wing jets and rotary SAR. Always had words of advice for an inexperienced piston twin pilot.



Another 430 that was in often. Ended up being sold to Turkey.



These used to bring golfers around Ireland during the boom. Would arrive together and were a nightmare to man handle back in the hanger!



The hanger queen, only ever seen it move when it got repainted and sent to West Africa somewhere.

cerastes

Tabnabs wrote: »

The only chopper I've been up in in Ireland and on that basis...

Whats under the nose cone? I saw that aircraft without it?
Makes me think, looks like a newer strengthened AlouetteIII.

conork93 wrote: »

Its gotta be EI-SAR operated by the Irish Coast Guard. What an absolute machine it was. Pity its retired now. Sad to see it go.

http://www.kinsaleangling.com/gallery/v/Ships_and_Boats/irish_coastguard/EI_SAR.jpg.html?g2_imageViewsIndex=1

Names in aircraft regs, doesnt sit well I dont think.

Id say the PUMA, never even saw it but seems a shame there werent a couple, could really have been put to good use, thought I saw a B&W image somewhere with "GARDA" emblazoned on the side of one or maybe there was even a second, not sure if it was the same airframe or not but about the same time.

Edit before posting, just googled and there was at least one PUMA leased from the German (looks like border guards?)

skallywag

cerastes wrote: »

Whats under the nose cone? I saw that aircraft without it?

I am guessing that you saw this aircraft:

http://homepage.eircom.net/~eihelicopters/eilit.htm

EI-BLD has a radar housed in the nose.

ilavela

Surprised no one mentioned EI-ODD. I had a chance to fly with it last week and it was brilliant.

w w w. irishairpics.com/photo/1026399/L/Bell-206B-III-Jet-Ranger-III/EI-ODD/Zero-Altitude-Limited/?&sid=&sp=

ohnonotgmail

its all totally unfair. never had the chance to fly in a helicopter. I used to work for a guy who owned one. We were travelling to limerick for business on a satruday and we were supposed to be going in the helicopter. It had to go in for maintenance so we had to use his light aircraft instead. The only reason i agreed to work on the saturday was to get a go on the helicopter. bummer.

clown2brown

Has to be the S76B Spirit.
This thing would rattle your windows as it passed overhead and had an unmistakable sound! Shame about it's accident in Bettystown.
The charred remains of the airframe did not resemble an S76 whatsoever.

b757

EI-SAR
EI-LOW

arubex

cerastes wrote: »

Makes me think, looks like a newer strengthened AlouetteIII.

MBB had a similar idea and built a prototype Bo-106 that had a longitudinal splice to widen the cabin to match the Alo, but it was just too expensive and only one flew.

http://www.aviastar.org/helicopters_eng/bo-106.php

Even the baseline 105 was a fearsome price and spares cost a packet too. The price of German engineering.

But...

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WSQ_-SB0gVQ

Shamrocks320

Ireland's first r44 g-hale which was based in Connemara in the 1990's . Great toy

cerastes

I'd vote the allouette III as it's such a useful utility helicopter, like the puma too, if it could have been upgraded with a quieter engine and not the almost as noisy one as they did put on later in its service, not sure how many that was done on.like they managed two capture a banshee and lock it in a washing machine.

As for less than usual, I believe the original training was done on an allouette II, looked a sleeker machine.

SachaJ

Ah the Allouette. Used to terrify me as a kid every time it came into St.Lukes Hospital in Kilkenny but we'd still run up it to watch it take off.

cerastes

I meant an engine fitted to some later versions of the allouette III elsewhere, and not that a different engine was fitted to the versions operated here.