The A111,Gazelle and the Dauphin. What future?(merged)

[Goldie fish]

Could it be possible that these 2 aircraft could work alongside the newer Allouettes for the forseeable future,rather than replacing them outright?

Consider UH as replacment for the Dauphins,rather than the entire heli fleet,
The Gazelles then need replacment,and this would explain why only 2 LUH are being requested. The incident involving the GASU heli almost falling out of the sky during Mrs Clintons visit also landed the Air Corps with a recommendation from the AAIU that they have a heli similar to either type on which to carry out conversion training from the single engine of the A3 to the two engines of the GASU types...
Face it,we all know the Dauphins must go immediately,and the single remaining Gazelle is of little practical use,but the A3 or at least the older models,can live on for a while yet?

I have split the heli tender thread into 2, one dealing with The Light Utility Heli(small one) and the details of the contract,the other to deal exclusively with the Utility Helicopter(the big one). The 7 pages were just getting too difficult to read

[Turkey]

The A111 and the Dauphin

Does the A111 and the Dauphin have a future withen the IAC, even a very short-term one?
Obviously the A111 is going to overlap the arrival of the new helicopters for a while, untill they are sucessfully intergrated into the service, but is their any other use to be made of them? Could they ,for example, be used as gunnery training aircrafts for a new generation of air-to-ground gunners for the Air Corps
As for the Dauphins, it is generally understood that the Dauphins are finished mainly due to the enormous amount of money required to refurbish the avonics on these expensive aircrafts, but just suppose................
Suppose we just went ahead and ripped out all the avonics and just fitted a basic set of flying instruments and turned them into clear weather only troop slicks and happly let them trash out their remaining flying hours as trainers for ARW, and other troops who might be deliverd by air in a hurry.
Turkey dives into a fireproof flying suit and vacates the area.......fast!

[Farel']

I believe RTE news had a clip on recently showing all the current Alloutes being used in an exercise with the army. Does anyone have a link to this?

[Scorpy]

Oh you will probably see the Alouettes around for a few years yet, it is theoretically possible that they could end up as the airframe on which new heli pilots cut their teeth to gain P1 flying hours prior to progressing to a heavier and more complex utility heli or God forbid, a medium lift. Kinda like the cessnas in fixed wing land. But better and more useful.

I don't think door guns will be an option, I believe it was looked into recently and dropped again due to a lack of forseeable role / threat. I'm all for them tho'!

[ForkTailedDevil]

There are seven Alouttes are there not? Well ok i have a few ideas for them

Keep them in their current roles until the new helicopters arrive.After that......
1/Detach a couple to the NS to see if they can run basic helicopter ops by themselves
2/Use them for very basic training of new recruits
3/Move a couple to VIP transport.Fit them out with a better interior and keep the ministers away from any proper military helicopters you might get.Tell them the retro French styling will make them look good.
4/Put the one in worst condition into the museum and give it a cosmetic makeover and take as much of the internals out as you can to keep the others going for a while.
5/Use them for border patrols
6/Detach a couple for the ARW to mess about with.
7/Keep them to give pilots something to keep thier flight hours up to scratch on so you can keep low hours on the shiny new whirly birds.

Ditch the Dauphins ASAP and the Gazelle (add one Dauphin to the museum as a precautionary warning to future generations since it is silly trying to keep a single example of a type flying retire the Gazelle there aswell.

[DeV]

Switzerland has a large fleet of Alouettes, they hope to withdraw them from operations in 2006, but they will be using them for training till 2010!

Alouettes can't operate offshore, only within c3 miles of shore for safety reasons, which would make it unsuitable for NS training.

I believe the should be retained in the short term, they obviously still have life in them but spares are proberly a problem. They could withdraw a number, say 2, for use as spares.

Use one as a FLYING museum

Use one as an instructional airframe for technicians

That leave 3 for use on army support missions

[ex pat 007]

Originally posted by Farel'
I believe RTE news had a clip on recently showing all the current Alloutes being used in an exercise with the army. Does anyone have a link to this?

franks message board ( its in the air corps news section) has a link to this. Its labeled "Irish troops on training course for liberia"

[John]

http://www.rte.ie/news/2004/0523/9news/9news56_3a.smil

[ForkTailedDevil]

Alouettes can't operate offshore, only within c3 miles of shore for safety reasons, which would make it unsuitable for NS training.

I wasn't considering flying them from Eithne or anything like that. I would be curious as to the abilities of the NS to be able to deal with the supply, basing and admin needs of a helicopter.A simple, cheap experiment to test the concept of the NS running its own helicopters at a future date.

[Goldie fish]

In what way would the supply, basing and admin needs of a heli be any different to that of a ship? it would be a bit like giving somebody a bicycle to get them used to owning a motorcycle. Allouettes in naval service would have no practical use.
Doing this to see if it would work in the future would be an impractical and expensive use of already limited assets.

[Smithy]

Allouettes

Hey, 5 Allouette IIIs just passed over Kildare in line astern, on their way back from Dromoland I presume. Will this be the last time we see that many of them in the air together. I know I give out about the Air Corps sometimes (well often), but it was good to see them.
________
Digital scales

[Goldie fish]

If you read the rest of this section,you will see that there has never been a greater availability of Allouettes. Expect to see more of them,not less.

[Scorpy]

I was beginning to think nobody had noticed! Yeah, you will see them more often and there was a sixth available for use in Baldonnel, but it wasn't required. The seventh is on an 800hr inspection and should be back out in a couple of months. I hear that the eighth could be rebuilt in a very short timeframe because the techs have been stockpiling all the parts for the job and just need a decision to go ahead. Fantastic little workhorses, did some unbelievable stuff over the week, just like the rest of the army down there. Keep 'em and buy two more! (LOL)

[Goldie fish]

IAR in Romania do upgrades on the Allouette...

[Goldie fish]

Was there a fat viking woman screaming in your ear at the time?