Author Topic: Fouga Magister Irish Sighting  (Read 1714 times)

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Offline Lootenant Pigeon

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Fouga Magister Irish Sighting
« on: January 03, 2010, 04:56:50 am »
So this is a question plus a bit of info. The question is ? Where are all the Fougas ? Are they in storage ? I know theres one in the Museum and one in Cork but what about the rest ? Where they sold on or scrapped ? Also, of the IAC Fougas which are still in existence could any of them fly again ? What about having an IAC historic flight squadron ?

Now the info. About 3 years ago in the summer my father was sailing ( as volunteer paying crew ) off the Galway coast in one of those 3 masted tourist schooners when he said they all got a thrill when a silver and orange Irish Air Corps JET buzzed them low at about 400 feet and then zipped off into the distance. It " had a distinctive tail like a swallow " me das words. Now, supposedly the Fougas were retired in the late 1990s so the question is, what was one of them doing in the air 3 years ago ? I saw another strange aircraft over Donegal about 3 years ago too but I will tell ye about that later.
« Last Edit: January 03, 2010, 07:50:57 am by Lootenant Pigeon »

Offline Tony Kearns

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Re: Fouga Magister Irish Sighting
« Reply #1 on: January 03, 2010, 11:41:57 am »
LP
No Air Corps Fouga Magister has flown since 11 June 1999 ( at approx 16.00hrs) no 220.
The present locations question has been raised many times, use the word Fouga in the search facility.
HTH
Tony K

Offline CK

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Re: Fouga Magister Irish Sighting
« Reply #2 on: January 05, 2010, 04:14:57 pm »
One is in DIT and i think one is in Carlow IT.

Offline Fouga23

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Re: Fouga Magister Irish Sighting
« Reply #3 on: January 06, 2010, 01:11:10 am »
[quote author=
Now the info. About 3 years ago in the summer my father was sailing ( as volunteer paying crew ) off the Galway coast in one of those 3 masted tourist schooners when he said they all got a thrill when a silver and orange Irish Air Corps JET buzzed them low at about 400 feet and then zipped off into the distance. It " had a distinctive tail like a swallow " me das words. Now, supposedly the Fougas were retired in the late 1990s so the question is, what was one of them doing in the air 3 years ago ? I saw another strange aircraft over Donegal about 3 years ago too but I will tell ye about that later.
[/quote]
Sure it wasn't a Belgian one?
Belgian Air Force Fouga Magister
www.fougamagister.be

Offline Lootenant Pigeon

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Re: Fouga Magister Irish Sighting
« Reply #4 on: January 06, 2010, 07:51:29 am »

Maybe, but how could it be ? Surely Belgian jets wouldnt be in Irish air Space off the Galway coast ?

Offline Fouga23

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Re: Fouga Magister Irish Sighting
« Reply #5 on: January 06, 2010, 02:50:45 pm »
It's the only silver/dayglo Fouga I can think of. I've looked it up though and it indeed seems unlikely. The only visit we did to the area in 2007 was to RNAS Culdrose in the UK, so still a long way from Ireland.
Belgian Air Force Fouga Magister
www.fougamagister.be

Offline Lootenant Pigeon

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Re: Fouga Magister Irish Sighting
« Reply #6 on: January 06, 2010, 03:00:09 pm »

What date in 2007 where your Fougas at Culdrose ? I think it was 2007 that this happened. Curiouser and curiouser. Sounds like one of your boys took a detour.

Offline Fouga23

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Re: Fouga Magister Irish Sighting
« Reply #7 on: January 06, 2010, 03:06:54 pm »
August 1st. We only had one Fouga left flying by then and it was also the only one in those colors. All the others were red. I'll ask around next time I'll visit the base, but I doubt they would have made such a big detour.
Belgian Air Force Fouga Magister
www.fougamagister.be

Offline Lootenant Pigeon

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Re: Fouga Magister Irish Sighting
« Reply #8 on: January 06, 2010, 03:10:30 pm »

I will ask my Dad about dates. Im starting to think you are right Fouga 23. It was during the summer that my father was on the ship.  :airforce_huh:

Offline puma

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Re: Fouga Magister Irish Sighting
« Reply #9 on: January 06, 2010, 08:02:37 pm »
Hi All, my first post on the new site.

About 3 years ago the Red Bull Sea Vixen paid the west coast a visit, could this be the mystery aircraft?
some of the Shannon spotters might have the dates to hand?

Best Regards

John

Offline Fouga23

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Re: Fouga Magister Irish Sighting
« Reply #10 on: January 15, 2010, 09:51:18 pm »
I asked around on base today. Wasn't ours, sorry.
Belgian Air Force Fouga Magister
www.fougamagister.be

Offline Lootenant Pigeon

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Re: Fouga Magister Irish Sighting
« Reply #11 on: January 22, 2010, 07:34:57 pm »

Mystery solved. I asked my dad and showed him a pic of an IAC PC9 and he said " thats it, thats the one we saw "... :fryingpan: