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46

Irish Air Corps / selling dauphin's a mistake?

« on: February 02, 2006, 08:50:55 pm »

thanks for the welcome lads,
seems a few of you know the old man
(don't hold that against me!)

buran,
here's a link to eurocopters own site,
it lists many airframes that have undergone refit,they have major experience at this game,they even have a eurocopter pre-owned division

http://www.eurocopter.com/pre-own....lang=EN

regards age,the first blackhawk flew in '74! so the dauphin is not that old.

it's not really the worth comparing the u.s machines to ours as they have a major conversion to undertake,modifying the airframes to take a completely different engine,but even this is described in the link given as a "conversion kit" which implies it's reasonably straight forward.

also a SAR chopper needs far more in the way of flir,auto hover,radar,GPS, etc compared to a "flying bus" plus take into account that military spec tends towards triple redunacy for major systems and you've added alot of complexity and weight

also stuff like the nightsun,and life rafts could go,don't fit the winches unless the mission required it,all this would help

if we did it right,we'd just be looking to upgrade to the arriel 2c (as used in the panther) from the older turbomeca,even more straight forward

like i said the best avionics fit would be simple,and lightweight the less "fluff" used would also be better for intermediate pilots to graduate from the 135,(don't get me wrong i'm not saying send them up there with a compass and a dublin A-Z)

i think this is possible if the will is there...

unfortunately,i'd say new carpets for the gulfstream's jacks has more urgency in the don at the moment...

47

Irish Air Corps / selling dauphin's a mistake?

« on: February 02, 2006, 02:00:18 am »

hi guys first post here,
just thought i'd start by introducing myself, i grew up playing in the don(my dad was in heli's,now CHC),i'm only a few years older than the dauphin's myself!

basically i was wondering does anyone else think this is a bad move? reading posts here it's obvious that alot of people think they should go,
but was the dauphin really just the victim of a witch hunt? let me put it this way would you use a coupe to drag your mobile down to wexford? use a transit as a family car?
the dauphin was ,in my view applied badly (though it did an admirable job for the most part).and burdened by a "jack of all trades approach" but thats not the chopper's fault.it was down to the government/brass

seems to me that an avionics upgrade makes sense,we have four well maintained airframes,largely composite based which should go on for easily another fifteen years,i understand that the hybrid analog/digital cockpit is the real problem but surely we could replace it with a lighter and basic flight system for overland use only,get rid of the radar,flotation gear,harpoon's etc and make it a "battlefield taxi" for troop/cargo transport and as a mid-step from trainer to agusta
possibly fit one as dedicated air ambulance or v.i.p,(fit a cargo hook for 105's or mrs harney!)maybe even paint them green!

an engine upgrade might be pushing the boat but still more feasible than jets!!

if we sell them we'll get nothing of value in return,that's if we even find someone to take them due to ex-military constraints/limited number on offer.
the airframe is still a modern,fast design!
ideally selling the gazelle and AIII's for parts(after the upgrade or when the 139's start to arrive) would offset some of the cost of the work...

look at the 6 chc s-61's all well into their 30's/40's (infact i think we may even have the oldest flying one?) but due to avionics upgrades and good maintence etc they are very viable machines that we'll be around for possibly another 5 years of great service,how many huey's are still flying in the world today? almost every other force uses mid life extensions/refit's on aircraft
 if they do it right and keep it simple we could get great service from them,buying four agusta's will mean maybe three available at any time due to maintainence,with one probably tied up in crew training leaving maybe two/three available for army troop use at any one time? the dauphin could plug the gaps and augment it

also we already have the tool's/spares knowledge to support the aircraft,why waste that advantage?

think about it 2 eurocopters as trainers/recon,4 dauphin utility heli's,4/6 agusta's med-lift
it'd make for a nice air mobile infantry unit so the army could get used to heli ops and learn how to utilise them to the full potential that was wasted before
...so yeah let the flames commence! '>