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De Haviland Dove

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  • #16
    Not much info yet but looks like the name Southaer might not be around anymore. The website is down at present and all bar one aircraft are being disposed of.(Cherokees not being kept). Busy little corner of the airport there. Needs some taxiway lights though, tough work following that yellow line in the dark!

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    • #17
      Originally posted by Jetjock View Post
      Just wondering does anyone know where the Civil Defence Dove is stored? They decentralised from the Phoenix Pk HQ to my neck of the woods about a eighteen months ago.

      ?
      I'd be surprised if the Civil Defence Dove was still around. It was in a very bad state in my day. Try Hammond Lane!

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      • #18
        The Dove that ye are talking about is currently "stored" in a very poor condition in No1 Hangar. No wings, tail, internal fittings worth talking about, engines etc and its painted a kind of dirty blue.

        It was to be refurbished for the museum shortly after it arrived but never quite got that far and doubt there will be any money knocking about for the work.

        The only Doves that actually remember in the Don were 176, 194 and 201 (the Arabian one) with the chrome exhausts.

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        • #19
          Claudel,

          Here's a pic by Joe McDermott over on irishairpics of Dove 194 as she is today...hanging from the roof of a museum in Germany....

          http://www.irishairpics.com/database/photo/1017054/

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          • #20
            There were two Doves in Joyce avaiation ..one was the one with 'bug eye' windows that actually was bought by the SEAE.. I still have my share certificate some where and on speaking to a guy at the vehicles show in the curragh last year it ended up in the North

            The second of Joyces Doves was bought by Waterford airport and the SEAE..the wings were kept by the SEAE and the fuselage was mounted on wheels and used for fire training although was never burnt. There is a picture of it in Karl Martins books on Irish Military vehicles as it was swapped with the AC for a C172( the one used for charity pushes whick looks inlike a C172) airframe for fire training.

            The 'bug eyed' one was used for photo recce in Rhodesia and had a camera door fitted in the bottom of the fuselage and the second one was G - ANSG if I remember correctly painted in a brown and cream colour scheme.

            The 'bug eye' one was origianally green and silver but was repainted to represent an AC aircraft.

            Tony Kearns tale refers to the 'Bug eyed' one that was actually on a flight from Jersey when it ended its flying days.

            I think as a long term project this one maybe in line to go back flying as the only structural damage was two bent props and shock loaded engines. Hence the second set of wings from the other Dove.

            Both the Dove and the serviceable engines were sold as a job lot to the same individual.
            Last edited by hptmurphy; 20 December 2007, 23:01.
            Covid 19 is not over ....it's still very real..Hand Hygiene, Social Distancing and Masks.. keep safe

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            • #21
              176 was in rag order when I last saw it.Hardly worth keeping, really.
              regards
              GttC[/QUOTE]

              Dove 176 was parked in the open between the hangars for a long time and when it was decided to let the Civil Defence have it , it was taken in to the engineering hangar and prepared for them. The pic shows it a short time prior to handing over.
              Tony K

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              • #22
                Apologies, finger trouble and old age!
                Tony K
                Attached Files

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                • #23
                  I've not been up at the range in Ratra House for a while, but was there quite a bit in 2000-2001, don't recall seeing a Dove there. There are quite a lot of bits of a DC-4 (I think) there in the rubble piles though.

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                  • #24
                    Hi Tony
                    I must be mistaken, as the Civil Defence hulk that I was in had holes in the airframe.The airframe in that picture looks in pretty good order.
                    regards
                    GttC

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                    • #25
                      Hi GttC,
                      I did wonder when you mentioned that 176 was in reg order, the picture shown was taken as it was being prepared for the Civil Defence. I did not notice airframe damage but it had been out in the open for a long time.
                      regards
                      Tony K

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                      • #26
                        About the Doves....
                        They come from a time before MATS, so what was their function?
                        Was it something like the Cessanas were subsequently used for?
                        Being a good deal bigger, they might have been more flexible......
                        I was on one [on the ground, they were all out of use by then , I think] in about 1972. and I remember it was fitted to carry a camera, [of the mapping type type I think].
                        I do remember that they seemed very nice looking aircrafts. I think a RAF one visited in about 1976, carrying a couple of [?] SAS people who were being tried for some illegal entry charges.
                        "We will hold out until our last bullet is spent. Could do with some whiskey"
                        Radio transmission, siege of Jadotville DR Congo. September 1961.
                        Illegitimi non carborundum

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                        • #27
                          They were used for calibration of airports and nav aids, mapping ariel photography.
                          Covid 19 is not over ....it's still very real..Hand Hygiene, Social Distancing and Masks.. keep safe

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                          • #28
                            Hi there
                            Murph has it right,but they did do the odd internal VIP flight....a story I heard about one of them was that, during a maintenance engine run, with Comdt Hipwell at the controls, an airman wearing a cap with a peak, spotted something amiss with the engine and stepped into the propellor arc.Hipwell saw it and snatched the throttle shut but not before the prop sliced the peak off the cap! Apparently, they were a bit of a pig to maintain as the undercarriage and flaps were lowered by compressed air so the mechs were always having to go troubleshooting for leaks.
                            regards
                            GttC

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                            • #29
                              The dove was an attractive aircraft all right -- the cockpit roof had a distinctive aerial type protrusion which was eye catching.

                              i think the guys from photo section spent many hours trundling up and down the country hunched over a vertical camera on interminable mapping flights.

                              As far as I know one of the original two doves had a serious accident at Shannon in the early 60s, no fatalities but serious injuries. A replacement dove was subsequently purchased. As Gttc says beyond mapping flights for the Ordnance survey, calibration for the Dept. of Transport, and some limited SAR search flights it is not known if they carried out any other duties ... MATs were limited if not non-existent in that era.

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                              • #30
                                Originally posted by hptmurphy View Post
                                They were used for calibration of airports and nav aids, mapping ariel photography.
                                The Doves were used by the GP Flight (General Purposes Flight) which could cover a multitude, including twin engine training.

                                I agree Turkey it was a nice looking aircraft and indeed it could be fitted up for camera work. The aircraft involved in the SAS caper was an Andover.

                                Curragh Plains. One of the four Doves was involved in an accident while on calibration work at Shannon on 27January 1961. Four of the five on board were killed, the pilot Capt (later Comdt) Jim Liddy was the sole survivor.
                                Tony K
                                Attached Files

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