Navy flying boat is back | Bangkok Post: news

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Navy's sole flying boat back in skies

Published: 6 Feb 2013 at 23.05
Online news: Local News

After being grounded for about a decade, the Thai navy's only operational flying boat has returned to action.

Back in action: A Canadair CL-215 twin-engined aircraft, or flying boat, takes part in a rescue operation during annual naval drills at Sattahip naval base, Chon Buri. The navy's two CL-215 planes have been grounded for over a decade. (Photo by Thanarak Khoonton)

The navy decided to bring its Canadair CL-215 twin-engined aircraft back into service to take part in a maritime exercise which began yesterday after engineers confirmed its air worthiness.

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insom
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Discussion 13 : 08 Feb 2013 at 09.0213
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All comments above are totally correct and the Thai military will not give a hoot to any suggeti0on from the public becausde this is the only way they can amass millions before retirement at the expense of our tax money.
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barmine
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Discussion 12 : 07 Feb 2013 at 11.3712
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I don't get it. This plane was designed to pickup water to put out forest fires, right?
What kind of rescue mission did these folks have in mind?
Here's an idea, the next time Bangkok is burning,
it could dump water where needed.
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spiceman
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Discussion 11 : 07 Feb 2013 at 10.4111
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CL-215 is a lake/sea-skimming water bomber, designed to drop water on forest fire, not for search & rescue mission. It is incapable of landing and takeoff in rough sea. For this kind of mission, we need a real maritime search & rescue flying boat (not water-skimmer), like the Japanese ShinMaywa US-2, used by Japanese Navy. Just another money-wasting scheme by Thai Military!
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CMfarang
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Discussion 10 : 07 Feb 2013 at 09.0010
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Boy and their toys, eh?
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Merlin
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Discussion 9 : 07 Feb 2013 at 08.039
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Re discussion 7: silly me, i forgot that happens!
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rod266
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Discussion 8 : 07 Feb 2013 at 07.528
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Thank god the submarine purchases were cancelled!
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aussiedoug
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Discussion 7 : 07 Feb 2013 at 07.457
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Disc 6...but you have forgotten the usual"buying" costs, like every man and his dog will have to go to Canada to see the airplane factory, and then a world tour to see them in operation, and then get involved in appointing a local agent who understands how things are done the thai way, and just maybe they might buy a few spares, but only a few nuts and bolts, not wanting to waste any of the budget allocation to really usful things, so it will easily come to umpteen billion baht, no point putting your snout in the trough if you are on a diet now, is there?
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Merlin
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Discussion 6 : 07 Feb 2013 at 07.316
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"Bombardier 415 Superscooper, which has a price tag of 10 billion baht" According to Wikipedia the current cost is $26 million which if you use 30 baht to the dollar equals 780 million baht or did they get a price on 12 or 13 new aircraft?
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pete
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Discussion 5 : 07 Feb 2013 at 06.475
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It’s very odd to see a CL-215 water bomber in a maritime environment as no maritime version of this flying boat was produced. Salt water corrosion will wreak havoc in no time. Having an Air Chief Marshall in charge of the navy doesn’t make sense either.
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mr.meldrew
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Discussion 4 : 07 Feb 2013 at 06.434
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Hmm. Took ten years to work out to fly one and use other for spare parts, brilliant.
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