Air Corps Firing Excercises

[Silver]

From the Dept of Defence website -

Air Corps Firing Exercises and Air Defence Artillery Exercises at Gormanston, County Meath.

From: Monday 07th March to Saturday 12th March (incl.) and
Monday 14th March to Wednesday 16th March (incl.)
Daily from 08.00 hrs - 18.00hrs.

February 2005.

East Coast - Ben Head
(Danger Area D 1).


You have been warned !

[John K]

Jeez! From 8 o'clock, what time will they have to get up to be on station at 8 o'clock! Wouldn't have happened in my time! Hope they're paying you overtime, Claudel.

[202]

Does anybody know if air firing will be going on this week?

[Rover1]

Do the Pilatus land at Gormanstown when airfiring and are the targets in the sea or on land?
Rover1

[Fouga]

anybody got any pics?

[202]

Rover, Gormo runways are painted with an X indicating out of service. I gather that in the past the target was on the beach but may now be out to sea ... however authoritative confirmation would be welcome.

[P.Doff]

They've been firing rockets all week from early mornin and throughout the day.They're also carrying guns but dont know  if they've been fired?? The target is on the beach this week if Im not mistaken ,as ,I overheared someone say that it fell over, indicating that it was on dry land??

[Fouga]

again i feel i should ask.....did anybody get any pictures?

[RMR]

There is two targets one lying flat in the water and one closer to the shore standing.Id say the reason for that one lying flat was all the direct hits i saw it taking with the rockets on tuesday last.They've also been letting rip with machine guns on wednesday two pc-9's showed up late in the evening,one of them took one run at the target and headed back to bal..the other stayed around to empty the guns and then switched to rockets.There was a guy there today with a couple of cameras.

[Turkey]

I was there to-day with one camera, and a pair of bino's
A P20 was offshore way to the south, and later anchored of the beach and some people came ashore in a RIB.
I took few picys as conditions were bad, I got a close look at the target at low tide, about meter wide craters within 20 meters of the target, and there were fragments of metal, and some quite chunky machined castings[?] litering the target area.I reckon thats good shootin, I belive some triple 'A' were firing earlier.
An intresting day, I hope for a repeat on monday, if the rest of my life permits.

[RMR]

Yeah,its a good spot on the bridge,you also get to hear the pilot on the radio there as to when he's comin in "hot" or "dry".
If you venture down towards the firing range and the beach to the left you can get some shots of the target being "splashed" by the rockets.

[GoneToTheCanner]

Hi all
The target in the water used to be an old ESB cable bobbin filled with foam and painted Dayglo Orange. It generally was shot to rags by the 7.62s of the Marchettis.The old rockets were inert, with a solid tip, either of concrete or aluminium, and painted light blue.They shattered on impact and left bits of fins lying about.Incidentally, every year,there are eejits who decide that that's the day they want to take their dog for a walk and get upset when you try and stop them. We had one old fool, one day, who insisted on his right to walk on the beach with his terrier. He got some shock when a Fouga came whistling down out of nowhere and strafed the beach.He left that beach at a rate of knots, with the pooch trailing after him.
Have fun.
regards
GttC

[RMR]

You will get eejits.I noticed two the other day who just ignored the warning sign and the flag proceeded to walk towards the range,but as you said above,promptly turned round when the aircraft let rip !!!

[GoneToTheCanner]

Hi there
It's crazy, really. We were not allowed restrain any person who wanted to walk on the beach, even for their own good.Once, in a previous life as a Bagger, I warned two young fellas from continuing to walk on the range in Kilworth. They thought they knew better and walked past me. I called up the Boss on the 77 set and he arrived with a posse. Both lads were rapidly bundled into a LandRover and given boot leather assistance off the Range... It also begs the question;why don't they use the Glen of Imaal for aerial gunnery? Is it a question of weather?
regards
GttC

[Silver]

It would be nice to see some pics of the PC-9's firing rockets.

Regarding people walking on the beach. I went to look at the PC-9's a few months ago firing their machine guns for the first time (me and them!).

I stayed a safe distance (near the bridge/warning sign) but I was very surprised that there were NO temporary signs placed across the beach area ? .......and indeed no temporary barrier to stop vehicles driving onto the beach ?

Indeed the red flag which were hanging from the warning sign, was placed in such a manner that it was falling behind the sign i.e. almost unnoticable ! (rather than hanging forward towards the driveway to the beach in such a way so as to catch peoples attention).

The whole "warning system" seemed so lax as to be almost useless !