| Salthill Millennium Air Show - Souvenir Brochure - July 4th, 1999 | ||
|
|
||
 |
||
| All 5 Dauphins have highly sophisticated
navigation and guidance systems which were developed to meet the air corps
specific needs, and allow them to operate over the sea in very bad weather
conditions. Developed by French and American manufacturers, the integrated
electronic package in each Dauphin allows the helicopter to undertake search
and rescue and surveillance missions over the sea in bad weather by day
or night. The Air corps Dauphins were the Launch vehicles for this
package which includes an electronic flight instrument system (or E.F.I.S.
for short) whose output is shown on 2 colour T.V. screens giving the 2
pilots crystal clear data. As well as E.F.I.S., there is an automatic
pilot, a navigation computer, and radar. The autopilot is sufficiently
smart to bring a Dauphin 130 miles out over the sea and make it hover 40
feet above a life raft. The radars main screen gives a wide sweep
ahead, and allows the crew to superimpose their selected search area on
to the navigation display, thus releasing 1 of the pilots to concentrate
on the search while the other pilot manoeuvres the Dauphin into position.
Apart from military duties the caring missions of the Dauphin totaled in excess of 1,200 S.A.R. missions and 1,400 ambulances sorties in 1994. Since 1995, the Air Corps helicopter wing responded to over 340 request for S.A.R. assistance with over 137 persons saved. 240 ambulance missions were operated, and 54 came from West coast Islands. Appropriately the Irish Air Corps Helicopter Wing moto in Gaelic is : Go Mairidis Beo, which in English means “So That Others Might Live”. |
||
