NS air

[Turkey]

OK, rumour has it that the tender for sale of the 4 Dauphins has had them withdrawn at a price of €600,000.
Now the really sad bit of this is that that may be a realistic asking price for these aircrafts. Yup, 4 choppers and a s***load of spares for the price of a 4 bedroomed semi-' in the capital.
These machines are only about half way thru ' their expected life, but are in need of a rebuild.

I think it's time to let the NS have them, 2 are suitable for shipboard ops', as soon as that CRT junk is ripped out of them, while the other 2 may be adopted for the same job, [I cannot get a definitive answer on this] but even if they are not, they are available for training, inshore work, whatever [subject to the same rebuild, of course].
Selling them at the rumoured price would clearly be not value for money, where as useing them to reintroduce the concept of shipboard air ops' might make a bit of sense.
And, before anyone says anything I do realise that 'sense' is an alien concept to our present and preceeding governments, but you never know......
Also posted on IMO...
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[papa 242]

Hi Turkey;
It seems strange to see aircraft we sweated  over,and in, on operations in the past rated as almost valueless!!
Doing the conversion course in France,training to go operational by day and then night SAR and then shipbourne ops and anything else a heli could be asked to do,it all took so much commitment and dedication and here it is valued at the cost of a handful of ministerial cars.
When I think of the ceremony marking their arrival at Bal,being piped in by Liam Og O'Flynn and now they are cast off like worn out socks!
(I wont even mention what happened here at Waterford.)

What a waste!What a terrible terrible waste.
And the trouble is,to utilise them now as shipbourne or offshore a/c would require such manpower and training
commitment from an already overloaded unit, it is probably no longer viable!!
I hope the lesson has been learned once and for all,you cant get a sports car do a job that requires a truck!
Yes ! its a beautiful a/c and I am proud of what we achieved in them and I will always have fond memories
of them but tinged with a terrible sadness.

[warthog]

have to agree with my dad here,what a terrible waste

[SARMAN]

I have to agree with 242 on this one such a waste to see them for sale for not much more than an average house in the capital is a shame..
Hopefully they go to a good home, as for the naval option it sounds good on paper but correct me if I am wrong but was 248 not a naval version..
The four remaining would have to be fully re-fit anyway, but what naval vessel bar one would be able to take ship born op's..
The navy having responsibility for aircraft might see them in a more operational role than the 135 is doing now transporting Cpl O'Dee around the country, I am sure the lads on the unit are not impressed doing this as it used to p*** me off no end when operations where canceled due to a minister or some twat wanting to look good landing at a meeting or event by heli..
Sad day for the corps to see the fleet of Delta Hotels being sold for cents...  

[FMolloy]

I thought the Minister doesn't like flying and so drives everywhere?

[SARMAN]

I seen him jump out of the 135 at a major incident exercise in Shannon  

[warthog]

we should keep them!
give them a mid-life update and get them training the pdf on troop ops,artilery spotting,using underslung loads etc...

the u.s coastguard is currently refitting their fleet so they can soldier on until 2042!

six agustas and four dauphins sounds like a nice little fleet to have