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Messages - Taj

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121
Irish Air Corps / Cessna's - Time to replace?
« on: December 17, 2003, 11:29:02 pm »
They are well over thirty years old now-is it time to replace?
It would not cost much, $4 million for a fleet of eight Cessna 208 Caravans.For that money they would give a much enhanced capability-greater payload/range/speed.Any thoughts?

122
Irish Air Corps / Cessna's - Time to replace?
« on: December 21, 2003, 02:13:33 pm »
Sorry bout the delay Silver, was away doing my xmas shopping in Limerick-apparantly the Squirrel is almost resident down there these days.
Back to the picture-I got it from the Cessna web site www.cessna.com.See what you mean about the A-Team I think I can see Col. Decker in one of those jeeps!
I see what you mean regarding the twin engine type but money is a problem.Operating costs must be considered.2 x engines = twice as much maintenance and fuel.
For a general purpose aircraft-the basic role of Army Co-op sqdn the Caravan is ideal,rugged,reliable cheap to operate and cheap to buy.In one of my reference books it says that they can be fitted with a FLIR and six hardpoints for special forces operations (with AIM-92 Stinger missles among the armaments).
It also has a detatchable cargo pod beneath the fuselage for limited cargo uses.
Morale is a major issue in the corps,and new types go a long way towards improving it.These aircraft can be purchased for the cost of one medium lift helicopter, and are a major step up from the 172.

123
Irish Air Corps / Six One
« on: December 17, 2003, 11:13:27 pm »
Great news but is 8 enough??They will be replacing 7/8 Allouettes and four(five in reality) Dauphins-a total of 13 aircraft.
It will more than likely be a twin engined type,which rules it out as a training heli, so will the Gazelle have to soldier on?
There is merit to purchasing another second hand Gazelle as an attrition/interim example until something more modern can be purchased(EC120).
Also is the Dauphin retirement definite?Im sure there are plenty of hours left in the airframes-why not modify/simplify them for different roles?

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124
Irish Air Corps / Six One
« on: December 18, 2003, 03:27:07 pm »
The Irish Independent said today that the Air Corps want 8 but sources indicate that 5 is more likely.That would be nothing short of a disaster.

125
Irish Air Corps / Six One
« on: December 17, 2003, 11:42:47 pm »
The top brass have let us down in their management of the SAR debacle and their lack of fore sight with the Dauphins too is baffling-everyone on this board realises that in the short to medium term the air corps will never get massive funding, so the powers that be should be looking at maximising the potential of what aircraft are there-we could have a useful section lift capibility for the cost of the simplifying of the Dauphins with lighter systems-total 6/7 million.
No one is talking about using them for night time SAR in bad weather conditions.There is a lot of political cowardice going around.

126
Irish Air Corps / "Who Defends Irish Airspace ?"
« on: December 17, 2003, 06:59:45 pm »
Found this site a few nights ago Silver by coincidence.
E-mailed the guy who wrote it to set him straight on his mistakes..ie"no Irish Naval vessel was built in Ireland".
He seemed glad of the feedback and said I wasn't the first to point this out to him.
As such, he is correcting the articles.But you have to agree with the sentiment behind them.

127
Irish Air Corps / Quick question
« on: January 06, 2004, 12:47:39 pm »
Theres a civilian owned EC-120 in Weston.Its all black.Any chance that was it?

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