Irish Parachute Club

The Irish Parachute Club (IPC) is located in Clonbullogue, County Offaly, in Ireland. It was founded in 1956 by wartime paratrooper Freddie Bond and began operations at Weston airfield in Leixlip. In December 1959, the IPC organised emergency supply drops to the islands of Inishturk, Inishturbot and Inishark.[1] In February 1963, the club organised emergency supply drops over the Wicklow Mountains during the severe winter of that year. The IPC trained several teams that competed internationally in 1962, 1964 and 1966.

Clonbullogue Airfield

Irish Parachute Club
Summary
Airport typePrivate
ServesEdenderry, Portarlington, Rathangan, Kildare
Elevation AMSL190 ft / 58 m
Coordinates53°14′58″N 7°7′24″W
Websitehttp://www.skydive.ie/
Runways
Direction Length Surface
ft m
09/27 2,526 770 Grass
No lighting, no fuel

The club later operated from a number of locations before establishing a drop zone in 1974 at Tokn Grass, west of Edenderry. The first club aircraft, a Cessna 172, was purchased in the same year. In 1981, IPC-based team 'Gael Force' competed internationally. In 1983, a Cessna 206 was purchased and, in 1988, the club moved to its current location at Clonbullogue Airfield. Most Irish skydiving records have been set at this location, including a 51 person formation in July 2008.

There have been important developments more recently including the construction of hangars and other buildings and the purchase of a PAC P-750 XSTOL turbine aircraft. Averaging over twelve thousand jumps annually, the IPC operates on weekends and bank holidays, and offers tandem skydiving, accelerated freefall, and static line parachuting training programmes.

Airfield

Clonbullogue Airfield has one grass strip runway running east-west which is 770 m long and 18 m wide.[2]

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References
  1. Irish Times 25th December 1959
  2. Clonbullogue village information - Offaly County Council website


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