Silver Swallows

[John K]

202, way back in the late '70s we had an airshow in the 'Don and the displays were excellent apart from a chipmunk that did his routine at about 10,000 ft so you couldn't even hear it, let alone see it!

[clan]

AF, I never saw the Display at 75th airshow. But the one in Salthill last year was bad. It was too high and too far away, in fact some people I asked afterwards did not even see them because no one was looking at them. It was a shame, as it is a lovely plane. But as I said, at least last year they turned up. This year we had one A111, and a very short display from the Casa and 2 PC9's which looked and sounded fantastic. The Irish Army had more on display then the Air Corp. So as a public relations excerise it was not good, as on the West Coast we very rarely see the Air Corp so hence they have no profile over here. If you asked Jo Soap in Mayo, or Galway or Sligo about the Air Corp and he will tell you they have a few old Helicopters. Unfortuante but True.

[alpha foxtrot 07]

the actual answer is going to be something like 'aer corps whats that'

[202]

Well whatever about Galway and Mayo, folk in Sligo would be well aware of the Air Corps given the Sikorsky operation from Strandhill which, incidently, gave a demonstration at the Rosses Point RNLI open day on Sunday and also hovered low over the Strandhill surfing championships. It looked well.

Interested in previous post which indicated Vampires/Provosts/Alouettes and Dove flying over O'Connell street at the Easter/1916 commemoration parade. Must have looked and sounded great.

[clan]

They do know about the Air Corp in SAR roles, I was been facetious.

[Flyboy]

I think we must bear in mind that this board is viewed and posted to by people who like aviation, therefore we cannot assume Joe Public is like minded. Please do not attack me as I am very pro-aircraft, I am simply putting forward "Joe's" position. Most "Joe's" couldn't care less about the Air Corps and as I 've said before on this site the image of the Corps is not helped when RTE etc refer to THE Air Corps CASA, or THE Air Coprs helicopter, therefore "Joe" thinks Ireland has 1 plane and 1 helicopter.

[clan]

True Flyboy, and it certainly does not help the profile when the Air Corp send there "one" Casa Plane and one Helicopter to an Airshow in Ireland attended by 100k+ Jo Publics. And the Army have a Tank, 2 Armoured Cars and an assortment of Hardware. Plus demos, static display and freebies to hand out to the interested Jo.
An opportunity missed yet again.

[matt_k]

That's a very good point by 'Clan'. I was very dissappointed with the Air Corps participation at Galway. Was there any particular reason for the lack of aircraft and public relations displays ?? Were the Air Corps just not interested ??

[202]

Did you miss the panel of young officers there available to chat about Air Corps life plus selling for a euro posters of Air Corps aircraft past and present?

It is simply not possible to compare the availability of army hardware (for starters there is far more of it) with the limited number of aircraft available on any given day.

And I think credit should be given to the AIII crew who performed a rare parachute team from a chopper.

So all and in all the IAC did very well (in fact other than having the vessel moored offshore the Naval Service had no presence on land).

LK

[Fouga]

FYI the Casa had to bugger out of the way because the RAF tornado F3 was inbound from the East and the Casa took too long to arrive overhead and was also tasked with delivering the Red Arrows guys to EICM for their sleepover.

[clan]

202, I know all that, but people want to see Hardware and it just was not there. The Casa which looks fantastic did shoot off because of the Tornado and this was announced over the tanoy. And well undestood, people were happy to see it, the Dauphin as advertised did not turn up and I think from my own point of veiw it would have been brilliant to see more then one A111, even a brief A111 formation fly past. As for the Naval service it took me bloody ages to walk out to the boat(Ship)
And I lied, today what appeared to be a single PC 9 flew over Galway quite high and fairly licking it, heading North West. I only think it was a PC 9, As it was single engined very light grey and really had the hammer down.

[clan]

Oh, I missed the officers selling the posters but managed to buy a Red Arrows one no problem off a Red Arrow. I guess he must have stood out, or he came looking for me.

[clan]

I would just like to point out I think the Salthill Airshow is excellent and well organised. I am just very Dissappointed our own Air Corp can not treat the people who attend with a little respect and actually turn up with more then one piece of kit.
As a public awareness excerise they fail badly, we might not have much, but what we do have show it off as best you can. This they do l not do in any shape or form. But I am only guessing here, but "if" there was an airshow on the East Coast I guess the number of displays both static and airborne would be a lot higher.

[202]

And let's not forget the first public display of the PC-9s which given that the crews are still working up on them put in a good showing.

And although not part of the airshow proper the Garda helicopter was there or thereabouts too.

So all in all I think the IAC put in a respectable contribution and perhaps bona fide circumstances of personnel or aircraft availability on the day prevented it from being stronger; no doubt in another year there may be an even better showing.

And certainly taking the Defence Forces as a whole I think the turnout was excellent.

[clan]

We will have to agree to disagree, the PC9's as I mentioned were fantastic to see, the GASU is exactly that the GASU not the Air Corp.