Post Views: 5,455

The 17th January saw my first visit to Casement Aerodrome of 2019. I’ve been many times in the past and it never ceases to excite me knowing I’m going again.

Located outside Dublin and just off the M50 Casement is the headquarters and sole airfield of the Irish Air Corps.

On arrival I was met by my host Sergeant Hayles and brought to meet the rest of the group. As I arrived later than the rest they had already finished in the CASA hangar so we headed towards the hangar that houses the Air Corps museum.

This area of the hangar is used to store retired Air Corps aircraft. Visible are 2 Fouga Magisters, a Cessna Reims FR172 H, an
Aérospatiale Alouette III and
de Havilland Dove
Avro Anson (141)
Fouga Magister

Next it was on to the No 3 Operations Wing hangar. No 3 carries out all the rotary wing tasks and operations assigned to the Air Corps.

An Agusta Westland AW139 (left) and a Eurocopter EC135 (right)

Eurocopter EC135

Next it was on to the PC-9M hangar where the majority of the day was spent. Thankfully the hangar is fully heated and it a welcome refuge when the cold outside became unbearable.

261 at rest at the hangar doors
267 heading out on one of the last sorties of the day
Head on

Eventually all the PC-9s were parked up in the hangar of the night. At this time we were lucky enough to be provided with a ‘model’ for a period of time. This was in the form of a pilot from the Flying Training School. The following images were taken with both flash and continuous lighting.

Top Gun
No it isn’t the Stig
Very pleased with this one 🙂

Sometimes it’s worth looking down your nose

Couldn’t resist this shot of the shadows being cast on the hangar doors by the continuous lighting

PC-9M at bedtime

Earlier in the day we broke for lunch and around the same time we paid a visit to the chapel in the grounds of the base. A gorgeous building.

Panoramic view of the chapel
The chapel is also the home to this memorial to the brave souls lost on DH248/RESCUE III almost 20 years ago.

All in all a very enjoyable and very long day. As always my thanks go to our host Sergeant Hayles and to the Irish Air Corps whose hospitality is second to none.

For more information on the Air Corps please visit their website here.