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  • From Facebook and Twitter.

    101 Surveillance and Airlift Squadron has had a busy week, befitting their motto "Súile thar an Fharraige". 7 maritime patrols, including some whale spotting, 2 search & rescue top covers and an urgent air ambulance to London.
    Yesterday, having returned from a maritime patrol, the Squadron was tasked with providing top cover for a SAR mission approximately 160 miles South West of Castletownbere. During the mission the crew were tasked to aid a medical evacuation from a passenger ship off the South West coast.
    During this type of mission the Casa provides a communication link between the helicopter crews, the vessels, the marine rescue coordination centre and air traffic control. It also carries a number of large life rafts than can be deployed from the rear ramp should they be required.
    "160 nautical miles South West of Castletownbere, 101 Squadron provides "Súile thar an fharraige"."

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    • Not wanting to drag up an old thread, but just to point to two YouTube vids I mentioned in post #95, about the palletised MPA mission system for the C295. It was shown in video

      * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P475t_uZUUI

      with the tactical loader shown in

      * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVBOtE9g2FQ

      That tactical loader is a bit dinky though lol. Carry on.

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      • i assume the radar and FLIR are a permanent fixture?

        Can it carry a palletised liferaft etc dispenser ?

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        • Temporarily removing the belly radome was something I was wondering about earlier (thought it was something that could be done), and GTTC confirmed it would be possible in post #93 (sorry for being pedantic quoting posts!). So that'll prevent all those bush landings we'd like to be doing from damaging it...

          FLIR ball can be removed easily enough (as far as a non-mech like myself would know). I believe I've seen pictures of one of the current CASAs without it previously. Life rafts came into my mine aswell earlier, don't know about that. Not sure what the current CASA setup is, but I wouldn't imagine it would be difficult in ro-ro setup shown in the video above.

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          • The current floor on the casas is not ro-ro. It does not have the roller-mat floor and associated powered rollers for moving bins so whatever goes on the casa has to be dragged or manhandled into position.....the FLIR ball is replaced by a simple cover plate so that's an easy on-off arrangement. taking off the belly radome is more complicated because the radar antenna has to come off, as well, and the associated wiring pushed back up into the belly and the hole covered over, which is not a quick fix.

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            • Originally posted by GoneToTheCanner View Post
              The current floor on the casas is not ro-ro. It does not have the roller-mat floor and associated powered rollers for moving bins so whatever goes on the casa has to be dragged or manhandled into position.....the FLIR ball is replaced by a simple cover plate so that's an easy on-off arrangement. taking off the belly radome is more complicated because the radar antenna has to come off, as well, and the associated wiring pushed back up into the belly and the hole covered over, which is not a quick fix.
              The radar would probably need calibration work afterwards then as well ?!

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              • Thanks for confirming that GTTC. I should have noted that this might be something that we could see with a ro-ro setup on a future C295 installation, should two or four of them be purchased....

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                • the radar should not need recalibrating as removing an antenna is commonplace. If it's just a case of refitting the same antenna, then the radar computer will self-test when it's first switched on.....the roller-mat floor is probably an option for the Casa from day one and probably could be retrofitted to the 235s if needed.

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                  • this is a quick-replacement bulk cargo floor in an A320, which sits on the standard roller-mat floor in the hold. So, no mod or adjustment to the aircraft need be done and it can be removed in a few minutes, so that palletised or binned cargo can go in.

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                    • I don't think it is practical to retro-fit anything to an aircraft that has already had a costly mid life upgrade. Time to support Maritime patrol with 2 or more new airframes (295 perhaps), and a third freight only version. The third airframe could assist with pilot currency and training.
                      For now, everything hangs on implementation of the CoDF report.

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                      • Possibly better to get 3 X CN235 replacement (larger) with 2 palletised martime patrol suites

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                        • they'll have to make a decision fairly soon, knowing how long it takes to get a new aircraft purchase approved and then actually delivered as they are eating up hours/cycles and the airframes will be worthless.....Couldn't agree more, gromiti. That's why they wanted to keep C250 in the first place.....

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                          • I think the Portuguese are the only ones with the modular maritime surveillance suite but this video gives a much better understanding of the fit

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                            • According to C295.ca

                              It can operate in a 30kt crosswind (>60kts in airport conditions)

                              And it can also be configured for fire fighting (new AC fixed wing role?)

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                              • Canada's decade-long quest to purchase a new fixed-wing search and rescue (FWSAR) aircraft has come down to three contenders, the Embraer KC-390, Alenia Aermacchi C-27J and Airbus Defence & Space C-295W.



                                canada fixed wing SAR competition. Lockheed not playing due to F-35 pull out?

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