Today at Baldonnel 28 Nov

[Tony Kearns]

Busy day at Baldonnel today. The annual blessing of the aircraft took place. The new sim building was officially opened and named after Brig Gen Jerry O Connor (retd) who unveiled the plaque. The news is that the Dauphines and Gazelle are to be withdrawn on 31 Dec. so you won't see them on the ramp for much longer. The two 135's were away all day and just caught 270 returning do I see a new tone to the serial number or are my eyes deceiving me? The PC12 was in for the simulator ceremony.
Tony K

[Tony Kearns]

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[Tony Kearns]

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[Tony Kearns]

4th image

[pym]

Excellent and interesting pics as ever Tony

I wonder if Pilatus are pushing the PC-12 as a replacement to the Cessnas...

[The Blue Max]

Great Photos the line up looks very poignant dating from 1st generation aircraft to the cutting egde of modern military aviation, Oh and hopefully pym that will be true it would be brilliant to see the Pilatus PC-12M Eagle (Possibly with funds provided by the Department Of The Envirioment as they are looking for 1000 hours airborne enviriomental inspection) which the PC-12s are more than suited to undertake and would be a fine addition to the current fleet to replace the venerable Cessna C172s.

[GoneToTheCanner]

Hi Max
Do you honestly expect to see a PC-12, over any Irish town,trying not to stall and keep a look-out, whilst the Army stand outside the AIB as the cash is carried in.Don't think so.If they get a PC-12, it would get used as a King Air replacement as MATS back-up/short-range transport.Do you expect to see a PC-12, down at 200 feet, with draggy spray-bars hanging outside in the breeze, trying to mop up spilt oil? At least,Air Atlantique use C-47s and Cessna 406s, which are much more realistic for that job.Apart from that, reconfiguring a 172 for a task takes only an hour or two.I'll bet it takes a while longer to refit the PC-12 from, say, target-towing to air ambulance....who was Jerry O'Connor,anyway?
regards
GttC

[The Blue Max]

That a hard one to say, what to say that in the coming years the army will not use its UAVs to follow escorts as this will provide realistic training for UAV controllers and will make the UAVs earn there keep and not just be sitting round the Curragh or Gormanstown (I know I know but might decide to tale avail of the lovly infrastructure there!!!) This would also allow the Air Corps to move away from traditional ATCP Role start to enhance its services it provides at present and also to tale on new roles such as Enviriomantal Patrol whish according to Pilatus website the aircraft is more than capable of dealing with and would also provide newky promoted officers to continue to progress from PC-9M to a similiar aircraft such as the PC-12M.

[pilatus]

do they just bless one aircraft from each type they use?that PC12 is the livery of the now defunct sauber petronas formula1team!

[GoneToTheCanner]

Hi Pilatus
They use a special "one-size-fits-all" blessing that is suitable for any class or category of aircraft, airborne or static.Never quite believed it, meself,ever since I heard the order, at one (compulsory) Mass Parade "Catholics,inside! Jews and others,fall out!!" '>
regards
GttC

[pilatus]

thanks GTTC but is every single aircraft blessed or just one of each type in their inventory?!

[Tony Kearns]

Pilatus,
It is usually one of each type to represent the fleet. The aircraft not there were the Gazelle, Gulfstream 251, the two 135's were away for the day and did not return until late afternoon.
The aircraft lined up were King Air 240, FR172H 208, Lear 45 258, PC9 265, Dauphine 247 and Alouette 195. In addition Fire Rescue Vehicle, Crash Rescue Vehicle and Bird Control Unit Vehicle (BCU). If any of these are required I will post them on the forum.
Tony K

[pilatus]

tony why not post them anyway!?share with those of us who were not fortunate enough to be there!

[Shamrock145]

Sorry chaps, I'm sure the blessing is meaningful to a lot of people but I just keep having monty python flash when I hear of "war planes" being blessed ...

A Reading from the Book of Armaments, Chapter 4, Verses 16 to 20:

 
Then did he raise on high the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch, saying, "Bless this, O Lord, that with it thou mayst blow thine enemies to tiny bits, in thy mercy." And the people did rejoice and did feast upon the lambs and toads and tree-sloths and fruit-bats and orangutans and breakfast cereals ... Now did the Lord say, "First thou pullest the Holy Pin. Then thou must count to three. Three shall be the number of the counting and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither shalt thou count two, excepting that thou then proceedeth to three. Five is right out. Once the number three, being the number of the counting, be reached, then lobbest thou the Holy Hand Grenade in the direction of thine foe, who, being naughty in my sight, shall snuff it."

-- Monty Python, "Monty Python and the Holy Grail"

[Hess]

Nice one Shamrock ! Thanks for the pics Tony.