History

History of Coonagh Airfield 1939 - 1963

An article by Joe Hennessy which appeared in the Limerick Leader on the 12th October 1994.

50 Years Later

1947 - 1997 Poem by Joe Hennessy

Limerick Flying Club - A Brief History
Towards the end of the sixties, there was an interest in developing a social side to the business operation at Coonagh - this social club was called the Limerick Flying Club.

After Shannon Flying services moved to Oranmore in Co. Galway and eventually became Aer Arran, the group of enthusiasts at Coonagh were without an aircraft or an Instructor. In 1970 they decided to formalise the club and arrange membership. Foncy Hobbins, Brendan Beegan and Bryan Carpenter became the initial committee of Limerick Flying Club with Bryan as President.

At that time, the Munster aero club at Cork Airport, was operating two rallyes and by August of that year an arrangement was entered between both clubs, whereby the Munster Aero Club would supply either rallye EI-AUE or EI-AUJ along with an instructor on Wednesdays and occasionally on Sundays to Coonagh. The Instructors were usually Eric Hutchins, Dan Herlihy and Tom Davy. The first few months were very promising and the commitee considered buying an aircraft. some of the Club members had become familiar with a Cessna 150 which had been in use at Galway with the Galway Flying Club for Instruction by Tony Doyle, this was EI-AOO. The three committee members and their small band of approximately a dozen fellow enthusiasts subscribed to a loan to buy the aircraft.

EI-AOO arrived at Coonagh on the 6th of February 1971 from Iona piloted by Pierce Cahill. By the end of the Summer of 1971 the club had a membership of approximately thirty members and Arthur Brennan had become the Chief Flying Instructor and by the end of the year Colum Johnston had joined as an Instructor. The airfield was now owned by Peter Matson who was also a keen aviator who operated a Cherokee 140, reg. EI-ATN from Coonagh. After twenty four months in existence the club could now boast a membership of 52 and EI-AOO had flown nearly 300 hours. In April 1974, Tony Doyle returned from his tour of duties with Eurocontrol in Luxembourg. He brought with him Rallye F-BLSP which became EI-AYV. Tony later hired this to a flying club which was starting up at Anaghmore, near Collooney, Co. Sligo. Another resident at Coonagh was Rallye F-OCVK which was owned by George Oriel. In 1974 Gary Young became the clubs second Chief Flying Instructor. During 1975, RWY 18/36 which had been inactive for some years was re-opened and the flying rate was £9 per hour. in 1976, EI-AOO was reregistered to Dick Hassett. Later that year the club decided to buy Rallye G-AVVK which was re-registered EI-AUP.

In 1977, Tom Davy stepped in as Chief Flying Instructor and the club leased in Rallye, EI-AUJ to meet the demand of its members. Dan Lehane purchased the airfield from Peter Matson in 1978. In December 1979 the clubs membership stood at 80 members and the CFI was Tony Doyle. In 1982 the club bought Rallye EI-BDK.

The club held several successful safety seminars during the 80's with well known guest speakers, i.e. Alan Bramson who was aflight test examiner with the C.A.A and who is quoted as saying "If one could land at Coonagh, you can land anywhere".

1984 was to see the club undertake its first major public event when they embarked on an airshow which was to be held on July 22nd of that year. The day proved to be very successful with thousands attending the event. in 1985 the Club bought Rallye EI-BOP to replace EI-AUP which was damaged. In 1986 the club decided to celedrate the bi-centenery of the forst ballon ascent which had taken place from Clancy's strand in 1786. A balloon was to be inflated at Arthur's quay carpark but the Dept. of Communications would only allow the event to go ahead if the balloon was tethered.

In March 1986 EI-BOP was replaced with EI-BKU and in 1988 Limerick Flying Club became a limited Company. On the 4th of July 1989 the club took delivery of Rallye EI-BGB which had been bought from Sammy Bruton of Midland Aviation. By 1990 the runway at Coonagh was in a bad condition and the club decided to run a draw to help raise the fund to re-surface it. The draw proved to be very successful and with the co-operation of dan Lehane the work on the runway commenced on the 14th of June 1990. the next two years proved to be very successful for the club with many members getting there PPL's, Instrument Ratings and Commercial Pilot's License's. In 1991 EI-BGB was replaced with Rallye EI-AYA and the club bought a Beechcraft 23, eg. EI-BFF to replace EI-BKU which was damaged earlier that year. By June of 1993 the flying at Coonagh had dropped off considerably and over the next two and a half years there was a general slump in aviation everywhere which resulted in many clubs finding it difficult to stay afloat. David Fielding became President of the club in 1994 and Sean Walsh was appointed Deputy CFI. The club did not have enough demand for two training aircraft and ir was decided to lease EI-BDK to the Castlebar Flying Club. Over the next teo years the club struggled back and a draw was organised in February 1996 EI-BDK was re-engined through an arrangement made with the castlebar Flying Club. EI-AYA was re-engined later that year. EI-BFF was sold to Midland Aviation and in return the club bought Rallye EI-BFM. Since 1995 the club has gone from strength to strength with the club now operating two training aircraft, one touring aircraft and a membership in excess of one hundred.