Use of Garda Heli on Saturday

[Vmax]

I was listening to Pat Kenny this morning, He's going to make enquiries as to why a Garda heli wasn't availible as he understands it on Saturday afternoon to monitor the rioting in Dublin until approx 4 o'clock that afternoon.:confused:

[Turkey]

what does he expect with only 2 helicopters to cover the whole country???

Most problems: money=solution.

[Trooper]

the Garda had their Defender 4000 plane circling the city centre all afternoon doing the same job as a helicopter only a lot quieter and one of the helicopters showed up late evening to relieve it

http://www.irishmilitaryonline.com/a...=a&id=defender

[Vmax]

the Garda had their Defender 4000 plane circling the city centre all afternoon doing the same job as a helicopter only a lot quieter and one of the helicopters showed up late evening to relieve it

http://www.irishmilitaryonline.com/a...=a&id=defender

Trooper.


I'm sorry, i have to disagree with you on part of your reply.The defender can't do the same job as the heli when it comes to been an aerial platform monitoring crowd control in built up areas,Hovering is a great asset to have.:wink:

[Aidan]

The Defender didn't have to hover, the pilot just stuck it into a constant banked turn and orbited the scene. The crew had contant eyes on the situation. Also, the Defender has longer endurance.

The main problem is that most people don't realise that the Gardai have a fixed wing asset at their disposal.

[haribo]

Speaking of Helicoptors, Merseyside police use this one..

http://www.phillrawlins.com/masg.htm

[Vmax]

No matter what type of turn is carried out there are always going to be blind spots while using fix wing aircraft in built up areas. The heli can be kept over a more precise location while in the hover(nice and stable) as we all know, follow individuals(ring leaders& trouble makers) they see causing trouble and if needs be help Gardai on the ground with arresting these people.You will find that most police forces and indeed the British military in NI used heli's as an aerial platform to direct operations in built up areas as it was the prefered platform and gave a better overall picture, why was the fixed wing aircraft used instead of a heli, was it down to mismanagement by the powers that be. I think that is what Pat Kenny was getting at( he also mentioned lack of water canon). Keeping the aircraft in a constant turn can be uncomfortable for the crew that are not doing the actual flying particularly for the person operating the FLIR camera and its usually not carried out for long periods of time.The type of turn required would have to be pretty tight considering the small area been monitored and the height the defender was been flown at making it all the harded for the FLIR operater to do his job properly, giro's or not everything has its limits.. By the way Aidan if the pilot was to keep the aircraft in a constant banked turn with the wind conditions we had on Saturday eventually he would have ended somewhere to the south west of the city.

[Aidan]

Thats strange, I was watching him on and off for half an hour, and from where I was standing on the top of O'Connell Street, the aircraft was only out of my sight on one occasion. And from what I could see, that was a deliberate diversion to the southside. He was in a constant banked turn, sometimes as steeply banked as 75-80 degrees. He was also a good deal higher than the helis normally operate, which meant that he had LOS on the centre of his orbit the entire time. And given the optics on board the aircraft*, the extra distance would have been of little consequence.

Would a heli have been better? Of course it would. But the cops had eyes on the situation the entire time; I don't think the difference between the two would have been substantive enough to make a material difference to the policing of Dublin on Saturday. Thats all that matters. Pat Kenny is just looking for a story, rational analysis be damned.

*assuming they were operational, of course.

[Trooper]

next time you are watching a repeat of police camera action you might see the film of when the two teenagers stole an empty beer lorry over in the Uk and a were chased by the police. That chase was filmed from a fixed wing aircraft.

[ackack]

yes but high speed car chases don't usually happen up and down single streets.

[The Sultan]

The Garda heli was helping out in a coastal SAR operation, along with Dun Laoighaire RNLI and the Coastgaurd. It turned out to be a hoax. The guy who pretended that his friend was in the sea owned up. Estimated cost of that SAR ~50,000. Similar to the cost of fixing up O'Connell street.

[Muzzle]

Are they still using two Squirrels or did they get an EC135 as well?

[Goldie fish]

They never used two squirrells.

[Muzzle]

Sorry I phrased that wrong, ment to say do they have 2 squirrells or a squirrell and an EC.

[Vmax]

The Garda heli was helping out in a coastal SAR operation, along with Dun Laoighaire RNLI and the Coastgaurd. It turned out to be a hoax. The guy who pretended that his friend was in the sea owned up. Estimated cost of that SAR ~50,000. Similar to the cost of fixing up O'Connell street.

That was early Saturday morning, that search satarted around 5 o'clock.I undestand that a garda heli helped out after the coast guard heli from Dublin returned to base to refuel.I don't know what time the garda heli finished at, but they do have two heli's. Was there a problem with both helis or was there a problem finding fresh crew to fly them on the run up to the trouble in Dublin. By the way 75/80 degrees banked turns sure is steep, I would be afraid of the wings falling off if I did that to long, the gyro's in the FLIR would definitely be working overtime.It might have had a good view of O connell St but there are alot of smaller streets running off O connell St it most certainly could not monitor . :wink: