The Irish Parachute Club (IPC) is an air sports club, located in

Clonbullogue Clonbullogue or Clonbolloge () is a village in County Offaly, Ireland. Location The village is located at the junction of the R401 and R442 regional roads. The ''Figile River'' runs through the village under the R442 near its confluence wit ...

County Offaly County Offaly (; ga, Contae Uíbh Fhailí) is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Eastern and Midland Region and the province of Leinster. It is named after the ancient Kingdom of Uí Failghe. It was formerly known as King's County, in hono ...

, in Ireland.

History

The club 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 Inishturk (''Inis Toirc'' in Irish, meaning ''Wild Boar Island'') is an inhabited island of County Mayo, in Ireland. Geography The island lies about off the coast; its highest point reaches above sea level. Between Inisturk and Clare Islan ...

, Inishturbot and

Inishark Inishark or Inishshark (), sometimes called Shark Island, is a small island neighbouring the larger Inishbofin, Galway, Inishbofin in County Galway, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Overview The island is now uninhabited; the last 23 inhabitants ...

. 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, and at many international events during the last 20 years. IPC-trained skydivers participated in several world records. The club later operated from a number of locations before establishing a drop zone in 1974 a
Tokn Grass
west of Edenderry. The first club aircraft, a Cessna 172, was purchased in the same year. In 1981, the IPC moved to Esker More near Daingean and an IPC-based tea
Gael Force
competed internationally. In 1983, a

Cessna 206 The Cessna 205, 206, and 207, known primarily as the Stationair (and marketed variously as the Super Skywagon, Skywagon and Super Skylane) are a family of single-engined, general aviation aircraft with fixed landing gear, used in commercial air ...

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
51 person formation
in July 2008. Later developments included the construction of hangars and other buildings and the purchase of a

PAC P-750 XSTOL The PAC P-750 XSTOL, (formerly known as the PAC 750XL) is a utility aircraft of conventional all-metal low-wing monoplane design, with fixed tricycle undercarriage. Combining the engine and wings of the PAC Cresco with a new large fuselage and ...

turbine aircraft. Averaging over twelve thousand jumps annually, the IPC operates on weekends,

bank holiday A bank holiday is a national public holiday in the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland and the Crown Dependencies. The term refers to all public holidays in the United Kingdom, be they set out in statute, declared by royal proclamation or held ...

s, and on some weekdays in summer; and offers

tandem skydiving Tandem skydiving or tandem parachuting refers to a type of parachuting, skydiving where a student skydiver is connected to an instructor via a harness. The instructor guides the student through the whole jump from exit through freefall, canopy ...

, Accelerated Free Fall (AFF), and

static line A static line is a fixed cord attached to a large, stable object. It is used to open parachutes automatically for paratroopers and novice parachutists. Design and use A static line is a cord attached at one end to the aircraft and at the oth ...

parachuting Parachuting, including also skydiving, is a method of transiting from a high point in the atmosphere to the surface of Earth with the aid of gravity, involving the control of speed during the descent using a parachute or parachutes. For ...

training programmes.

Airfield

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

Offaly County Council
website

References

External links

Irish Parachute Club

Parachute Association of Ireland Ltd.
Sports clubs and teams in the Republic of Ireland Parachuting organizations Sports clubs and teams in County Kildare Sports clubs and teams in County Offaly 1956 establishments in Ireland Sports clubs and teams established in 1956 {{sport-org-stub