Replacment for Cessna 172

donvito99 wrote: »

A number of UK police forces used Defenders, NPAS now uses four Vulcanair (formerly Partenavia) P68s.

NPAS have found their fixed wing to be better than helis for most police work, and much cheaper to operate. They operate all the P68s from what was once RAF Finningley, the Old Vulcan bomber base, where the last flying example still lives.

Markcheese wrote: »

I'm assuming you could own and operate quite a few surveillance drones for the same sort money as the garda air unit .. with a remote operator you could have a couple of lads in a control room in baldonnel or somewhere , and fixed wing drones based at airports around the country ,( or even hand launched ) , ( I've no idea how much range a fixed wing has )
Could be a way of getting a lot more air-cover for similar bucks ...

Operating a long range drone over urban areas brings it's own challenges. The better ones like camcopter etc, cost as much as a fixed wing, and still require similar care and maintenance.

They are used fairly successful in the northern UK.

Anyway back on topic I see the pc12s on twitter in donegal today delivering vaccines

Deleted User wrote: »

Might be a bunch of Herkys going cheap across the water soon, some decent hours left in ‘em. I wonder if we could pick up one or two...

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9305589/Death-Hercules-Entire-fleet-transporter-plane-favoured-SAS-grounded.html

Brits seem to be ditching them because of the cost of the next MLU, so you'd need to figure in the cost of that.

Buy 5, one to use and 4 for spares!!

Yisser havin a laugh. The Air Corps couldn't get one decent sized transport aircraft out of the Government in good times, they certainly aren't going to get 5 now.

You won't see another aircraft acquisition until a) the defence commission has reported and b) some sustainable plan to address retention is enacted.

Psychlops wrote: »

Dauphin is too small & cumbersome, wouldnt be able to take all the required medical gear either.

the 139 is also small and cumbersome and neither have a full head height cabin
the 4 Dauphins, gifted to a charity AAS organisation supported by the NAS and could have been an ideal air ambulance
strip out the unnecessary equipment such as the winch, harpoon, floats etc and they'd have been perfect. lots of exers skilled in maintaining them, flying them—all could have been hired and those skills kept.

the EAS is a brilliant service but a waste of a military asset and it ties up the bulk of the 139 fleet

the Dauphin was a scapegoat, given away for a song...Chile still seem very happy with our cast offs and the US coastguard are once again upgrading theres- plenty of life left in them

punchdrunk wrote: »

the 139 is also small and cumbersome and neither have a full head height cabin
the 4 Dauphins, gifted to a charity AAS organisation supported by the NAS and could have been an ideal air ambulance
strip out the unnecessary equipment such as the winch, harpoon, floats etc and they'd have been perfect. lots of exers skilled in maintaining them, playing them could have been hired and those skills kept.

the EAS is a brilliant service but a waste of a military asset and it ties up the bulk of the 139 fleet

the Dauphin was a scapegoat, given away for a song...Chile still seem very happy with our cast offs and the US coastguard are once again upgrading theres- plenty of life left in them

The SA365Fi was a piece of dogpoop. While the Dauphin was often compared to an italian sports car in terms of speed, they were not talking about a Ferrari, they meant an Alfa 156.
It had avionics the Air Corps wouldn't let their pilots use, and if you carried more fuel you either lost internal cabin storage or had to leave a few passengers on the ground.
Only 244 and 245 had the harpoon. The 5 screen EFIS was obsolete as soon as it was delivered, and while it looked modern, the CRT screens added to the overall weight. The Chileans stripped out the cockpit completely, at great cost, each aircraft upgrade came in the same as what they cost to buy new. The floats are built into the airframe, and are necessary for working over water. removing them means you must put something else in the spaces for trim. The winch is not the bolt on type. The aircraft trim is designed with the winch being attached to the frame. The AW139 cabin is much bigger than the dauphin one was. Most air ambulance you see of the type are the 365N type, without the 270degree search radar the Fi had. They bin one pilot seat (or reverse it) to make room for the stretcher.

I have seen 280 heading as far as Beirut on several legs. Was wondering how Simon Coveney got to Iran. Would the Learjet have the legs for it or would it be commercial from London?

Dept of Defence probably told Coveney the Learjet does work past grease

I think they did...not 100% sure.

It's not on the ground long enough. Wouldn't expect any repaint until its heading off for a major service check.

Psychlops wrote: »

The IAC said themselves it was going to happen but not until their use has calmed down with the Pandemic.

And given its usage rate, that’s not likely anytime soon, I’d agree that it will most likely be when she needs to go back to the factory for something else. If for no other reason that I could already see some of our TDS kicking off about spending x thousand on repainting her anyway...
Still a shame we couldn’t swing the other one.

Larbre34 wrote: »

A fifth? Was it ever suggested?

Back when we picked up the extra one for Covid responses, they offered us another from the same cancelled order for only a couple more million (no more than 5 million from memory), the offer got turned down by the GS of DOD citing "lack of hanger space at Baldonnel" from memory.

Larbre34 wrote: »

Interesting.

That and the lack of crew I imagine.

Sure, but at the time the 3 were still stuck in the States with no set time for arrival, an extra plane would have been useful, and ideally (though not at all in the DF right now) easier to build up pilots than get a good deal on another aircraft...

Classy bit of kit all right!