Irish Coast Guard Helicopter Replacement

vulcan57

I was looking through a book today to discover, to my surprise that the Sikorsky S61’s will be 50 years old next year. Just wondering what people’s thoughts on what a good replacement would be? I think that the Coast Guard could maybe split the helicopter types depending on the location. On the west and south coast they could probably do with a helicopter with a decent range to avoid the use of RAF Seakings on long range rescues, where as on the east coast the range may not be as important.

I was thinking of maybe one of these for the west and south coast.

EH Industries EH 101 Merlin..........Radius 350 NM............Capacity 30(+)+ 3 crew
Eurocopter AS 532 Cougar...........Range 656 NM.............Capacity 21 + 2 crew
NH Industries NH 90....................Range 650 NM.............Capacity 14-20 + 2 crew
Sikorsky S92..............................Range 475 NM............Capacity 20 + 2 crew

Maybe for the east coast .

Eurocopter EC 155.................Range 448 NM........Capacity 12 + 2 crew
Sikorsky SH60 Seahawk...........Range 319 NM........Capacity 14 + 2 crew
Westland Lynx.......................Radius 269 NM.......Capacity 12 + 2 crew
AW 139................................Radius 307 NM.......Capacity 12-15 + 2 crew

Or something special for the west coast.

Sikorsky SH-53E Super Stallion.....Range 1,120 NM......Capacity 55 + 3 crew

Be interesting to see others opinions. Nothing against the sturdy old S61N but aint gonna last for ever.

electric69

Dauphin, Dauphin, Dauphin and overhall a few s61 N's aswell

The Dauphin's are awsome looking aircraft and they are very well suited to Coast guard and search and rescue work.I would love to see a few more of them added to the coast guard fleet

cyrusdvirus

Might be better to go with the HH-60 Jayhawk rather than the Seahawk. The Jayhawk is a rescue bird, the Seahawk is predominately an ASW bird.

But if getting the Jayhawk, can we add in a little addition..like HIFR.. and then buy a Herky bird or 2 as refuelling platforms and Long Range SAR a/c

dogmatix

Didn't the defense department run a competition 6 or more years ago to replace the Dauphins with proper helicopters that could handle all-weather SAR? I seem to remember at the time the minister promising "price would not be an issue - only what would be the best helicopters for our men and women in the defense forces".

So the contenders was narrowed down to the EH101 or the new Sikorsky S92, with the EH101 being regarded as the front runner. And then Sikorsky dangled the prospect of either assembley of the S92 in dublin or maintenance work contracts (can't remember which) and suddenly the policiticians decided well maybe whats best for the flyboys would not necessarily be best for my politcial career and that was that.

cyrusdvirus

they did Doggy, but the S61's aren't operated by the Aer Corps

chickenhawk

CHC who runs our coast guard have already looked at the S-92. They brought one around to all the crews in shannon and sligo etc to show it to them. So I think if they bother replacing them this will be the one.

cp251

Indeed chickenhawk, as the Coastguard contract is run by CHC. They will decide what helicopter replaces the S61. At the moment it looks like the S92. The very helicopter the Air Corps should have got.

Although whether they would still have them is another question after the undignified row within the Air Corps over money for aircrew which ended up with all the NCO aircrew being taken off flying and put on kitchen duty or something. All of this caused the government to step in and take the SAR function away from them. I suppose it must have worked out for them in the end because I imagine many of the non pilot aircrew working for CHC must be ex Air Corps aircrew on decent money at last.

vulcan57

I think, personally, that the S92 is a damn good helo for the job, the only draw back would be that the range isn't that different from the S61. If they are going to replace the helo's maybe they should do it bearing in mind situations that could arise down the road, say, 20 years and not today. For that reason I think that maybe EH 101's would be a better choice, as they have already proved their worth as SAR helo's in a few countries.

The new S92 that has just replaced the S61 at Portland CG in the UK looks really nice, but, there again what are looks, being able to do the job is far more important.

cp251

Having written my comments above. I open 'Flying in Ireland' magazine, (An excellent publication of it's type) and there's an article on CHC. Apparently they already have 2 S92s and 3 AW139s. With a further 12 S92s and 13 AW139s ordered. So that clinches it. In the long run one or both aircraft will replace the S61s initially in the UK and most likely here later.

vulcan57

cp251 wrote: »

Having written my comments above. I open 'Flying in Ireland' magazine, (An excellent publication of it's type) and there's an article on CHC. Apparently they already have 2 S92s and 3 AW139s. With a further 12 S92s and 13 AW139s ordered. So that clinches it. In the long run one or both aircraft will replace the S61s initially in the UK and most likely here later.

Great stuff, on me way to get a copy.

dogmatix

Is the S92 a better machine then say the EH101? I seem to remember during the original competion years ago for the Aer Corp that part of the furore was that the EH101 was already in service with a number of airforces and was a "known" entity and the S92 was still only test flying and that if the S92 was chosen Ireland would have been the first customer. We would have been a "beta" user if you know what I mean.

I've since read that there have been some reliability issues with the EH101 tail rotor system.

But just on looks alone the EH101 beats the S92, but the sight of a CH53E would be the dogs boll*cks!

Steyr

S92 has got to be one of the ugliest helicopters going!

vulcan57

Steyr wrote: »

S92 has got to be one of the ugliest helicopters going!

After a few years it'll grow on you, Dave!

Steyr

vulcan57 wrote: »

After a few years it'll grow on you, Dave!

What like a Tumor?:eek:

vulcan57

Steyr wrote: »

What like a Tumor?:eek:

:)

punchdrunk

my dad's retired from CHC now but last i heard the plan is to offer the new S-92 when the contract is up for renewal in 2011,
i'd say S-92's on the west coast and aw139s for the east coast is a very strong possibility