World’s top package deal
QUESTION How much does it cost to ascend Everest via the escorted ‘easy’ route? AT 29,029 ft, Mount Everest is the highest and most famous mountain in the world. It is also one of t he most accessible giants, attracting hundreds of climbers during the annual climbing window between April and May.
In a typical season, more than 600 people reach the summit of Everest, about half of those who attempt it. Two-thirds do it from the south side in Nepal, while the rest tend to approach from China- occupied Tibet to the north.
Climbing Everest is unrestricted, you just need to be able to afford it. Travel costs may be as low as €1,000, but can reach €6,000.
This includes air fare and transport to base camp, which involves the hiring of a few yaks.
You will need excellent climbing gear, to eat and stay warm.
More than 95% of summiteers need to bring supplemental oxygen with t hem, costing between €8,000 and €17,625.
The permit cost is €9,928 per climber from Nepal.
The Chinese charge €8,577 per person for a team permit of four or more, but for groups with three or fewer members, the cost skyrockets to €17,625 per person.
The all-important guides and Sherpas can cost anywhere between €27,000 and €76,000.
Most climbers, especially those who have little knowledge of the terrain, opt for a package deal, which may be more costly but is a lot safer. Jeanette Marsh, Bath.
QUESTION When was the Irish Air Corps founded? And when it was new did this branch of the Defence Forces import aviators from other countries or train up pilots from here? THE Air Corps was set up in October, 1924, and initially, its pilots were Irishmen who had flown with with Britain’s Royal Flying Corps and its successor, the Royal Air Force, during the first world war.
Later, it began to train its own pilots. Before the Air Corps was started, a military air service had been set up in 1922 as a branch of the Army.
Michael Collins, as f orward looking as ever, had been a keen proponent of this new military air service and he was involved in its establishment. But the number of pilots was limited.
By the end of 1922, it only had ten pilots, most of whom had served in the RAF, although some had started with it having had no previous flying experience.
At the end of that year, the new military air service started its own training programme at Baldonnel.
Following the Army mutiny of 1924, it was decided to set up a separate Air Corps, with its headquarters at Baldonnel, a former RAF base, in Co. Dublin.
Today, Baldonnel is the air base that has the longest history of aviation of anywhere in Ireland.
When the Air Corps began, pilots from the military air service transferred over.
Although the new military air service and then the Air Corps bought all its planes from British manufacturers, they didn’t take on any of the hundreds of former RAF personnel in Britain who had been thrown on the scrapheap at the end of the war.
The limited numbers of former RAF personnel who did transfer to the new military air services in Ireland and then to the new Air Corps were all Irishmen.
A typical example of an Irishman who had served in the RAF was W. P. Delamere, who had served in the British air force during the first world war, but always in France, never in Ireland.
In 1922, he left the RAF and transferred to the new military air service, then in time, becoming the officer commanding the Air Corps.
Subsequently, he was the manager of Dublin Airport, between 1946 and 1966.
Dublin Airport was built on the site of another former RAF base, at Collinstown.
There was quite a deal of tension between pilots in the new Air Corps over t hei r di f f e r i ng backgrounds.
While most pilots had gained their flying experience with the RAF, others had fought with the IRA in the War of independence and often started with the Air Corps with no flying experience at all.
But as soon as it started, the Air Corps began its own training programmes. In 1926, the Department of Finance approved training for up to ten officers at a time. These training courses meant that, over time, the Air Corps could train its own pilots, rather than depending on pilots who had trained with the RAF.
Between 1943 and 1945, f or instance, the Air Corps ran a training programme designed to train recruits as sergeant pilots and by the end of that particular course, 20 pupils had qualified. In fact, flight training has been done at Baldonnel for nearly 100 years, while the Air Corps also set up its own apprentice school in 1936.
So while the Air Corps was initially dependent on Irishmen who had done their training with the RAF, it soon began to recruit and train its own pilots, which it has done ever since. David Power, Dublin 7.
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