Story of My Aerlingus Flight

[pilotguy03 1]

Please tell me how you got into the cockpit for a day! I am sooo jealous! Very nice article!

That's the biggest understatement of the year, "A lot of paper work", it was a mountain of the stuff.Do you know any pilots? If so, that's the place to start. Ask them first if you're going on one of their flights and take it from there, that's how I managed it.

So...if one of my family member is a pilot for US Airways...I could ask him?Would the FAA allow?

[Airbus Commander 563]

Yeah i cant say i was ever 100% relaxed the few times i watched her pull up at logan to ferry me home.. always watching those ailerons for any sign of a snap :) yeah + the runway incursion is always one i enjoyed explaining to the co workers on our way outta logan :-) was it just the fact that she was an old bird? What about DAA and LAX there not that much younger?

Nah, ORD is on the go since 1994, LAX is in service since 1999 and DAA since 2001. ORD was one of the initial A330s designed, so there were flaws in it that were ironed out in later models. But it wasn't just the mx thing though, she was plain unlucky. Back in May '10 and the Orlando incident, ORD was originally scheduled to be on that flight only there was a swap at the last minute and it was LAX that lost the engine 50' after takeoff. Not a conincidence. ORD has hit many an animal too, a badger, a deer, countless rabbits and her fair share of bird-strikes; to mention a few. She almost crushed a ground tug once, probably would've killed the man inside if the pilot hadn't spotted a ground handler waving his hands at him frantically to stop. She had all 6 DU's fail once on approach into SNN, if it weren't in VMC it would have been a major incident. She was just plain unlucky, simple as...Rónán.

So...if one of my family member is a pilot for US Airways...I could ask him?Would the FAA allow?

That's the first step, then get your security clearance and background checks done, get your airside pass sorted, fill out forms that say you won't sue if they do anything to you, and that they can sue you if you do anything stupid, agree to let your photo be published, ect... The list goes on, but the contact on the flight deck is probably the most important....

[pilotguy03 1]

Nah, ORD is on the go since 1994, LAX is in service since 1999 and DAA since 2001. ORD was one of the initial A330s designed, so there were flaws in it that were ironed out in later models. But it wasn't just the mx thing though, she was plain unlucky. Back in May '10 and the Orlando incident, ORD was originally scheduled to be on that flight only there was a swap at the last minute and it was LAX that lost the engine 50' after takeoff. Not a conincidence. ORD has hit many an animal too, a badger, a deer, countless rabbits and her fair share of bird-strikes; to mention a few. She almost crushed a ground tug once, probably would've killed the man inside if the pilot hadn't spotted a ground handler waving his hands at him frantically to stop. She had all 6 DU's fail once on approach into SNN, if it weren't in VMC it would have been a major incident. She was just plain unlucky, simple as...Rónán.That's the first step, then get your security clearance and background checks done, get your airside pass sorted, fill out forms that say you won't sue if they do anything to you, and that they can sue you if you do anything stupid, agree to let your photo be published, ect... The list goes on, but the contact on the flight deck is probably the most important....

Geeze so much work! Thanks! One day I hope to fly for the airlines!

[dirtbox 0]

Nah, ORD is on the go since 1994, LAX is in service since 1999 and DAA since 2001. ORD was one of the initial A330s designed, so there were flaws in it that were ironed out in later models. But it wasn't just the mx thing though, she was plain unlucky. Back in May '10 and the Orlando incident, ORD was originally scheduled to be on that flight only there was a swap at the last minute and it was LAX that lost the engine 50' after takeoff. Not a conincidence. ORD has hit many an animal too, a badger, a deer, countless rabbits and her fair share of bird-strikes; to mention a few. She almost crushed a ground tug once, probably would've killed the man inside if the pilot hadn't spotted a ground handler waving his hands at him frantically to stop. She had all 6 DU's fail once on approach into SNN, if it weren't in VMC it would have been a major incident. She was just plain unlucky, simple as...

Frick, yeah sounds like she may have been a bit jinxed then, Ive heard a few rumours on other forums about the belief that she was jinxed. I am sure loosing all 6 DU's on approach to SNN would go down as one of those punctuated moments of terror that pilots go thru from time to time :) All more credit to you guys and the techs at aer lingus for keeping her on the go for so long. Probably made sense to retire it due to ongoing mx costs + possibly a costly D-Check on the horizon (as well as being jinxed), one last Q out of interest could ORD actually make it to ORD with max pax and the hold full? Ive seen a few things about saying she had a lower MTOW than the other A333's at EIN?. (ps Would love to get a go on Patrick, but I dont see me going to JFK anytime soon.) However really looking forward to the A350 XWBs, would love to be one the first pax on those once you get them)

[Airbus Commander 563]

Frick, yeah sounds like she may have been a bit jinxed then, Ive heard a few rumours on other forums about the belief that she was jinxed. I am sure loosing all 6 DU's on approach to SNN would go down as one of those punctuated moments of terror that pilots go thru from time to time :) All more credit to you guys and the techs at aer lingus for keeping her on the go for so long. Probably made sense to retire it due to ongoing mx costs + possibly a costly D-Check on the horizon (as well as being jinxed), one last Q out of interest could ORD actually make it to ORD with max pax and the hold full? Ive seen a few things about saying she had a lower MTOW than the other A333's at EIN?. (ps Would love to get a go on Patrick, but I dont see me going to JFK anytime soon.) However really looking forward to the A350 XWBs, would love to be one the first pax on those once you get them)

No she couldn't with full hold and PAX count, but that's very rarely the case so she could fly to ORD on occasion but typically she'd just do BOS and JFK.There was also one time when she almost took off with one of the ground handling crew still in the cargo bay, there's probably an AAIU report into it out there on the internet somewhere, but again, that'd be the curse of EI-ORD. Patrick flies from BOS some times, the BOS/JFK fleet are pretty interchangable bar the A332 used for the second BOS flight that also does the MCO route. Well you'll be waiting another 6 years for the XWB's at the rate the economy is going, I'm just hoping I'll have enough seniority by that point to be able to go straight onto the A350 and leave the A320 behind for good....

[Ben Johnson 3]

Niall - A very nice story, and thank you for sharing.Ronan & Aer Lingus - hat's off to you for enabling this young man's dream come to fruition.Regards,Bob L

[Airbus Commander 563]

Ronan & Aer Lingus - hat's off to you for enabling this young man's dream come to fruition.

We do it all the time for the "Make A Wish" Foundation, it all makes for good press and free advertising, word of mouth is a very good form of advertising in a small country like Ireland, and it's always nice to see the look on a kids face when he sees the cockpit....

[RYR738 9]

We do it all the time for the "Make A Wish" Foundation, it all makes for good press and free advertising, word of mouth is a very good form of advertising in a small country like Ireland, and it's always nice to see the look on a kids face when he sees the cockpit....

Great stuff Ronan !!Really enjoyed reading this thread." Happy New Year ".Fred.

[C152Man 0]

Hi Ronán,Just wondering how often do you fly to JFK with Aerlingus as my dad flies that route quite often, it'd be cool to know if you've flown him sometime!!!Alex Burke.

[Airbus Commander 563]

Hi Ronán,Just wondering how often do you fly to JFK with Aerlingus as my dad flies that route quite often, it'd be cool to know if you've flown him sometime!!!Alex Burke.

Hi Alex, welcome to AVSIM, Not all that often to be honest. Personally I hate the place, the controllers speak a language of their own, ICAO standard RT goes out the window, reading back a clearence is unheard of there, and the shear volumes of traffic make it near impossible to operate there. The Canarsie VOR approach onto 13L/R is hell, particularly if they give you a last minute change from 13L to 13R. You can hear me going around the turn just calling out "Yup-yup-yup-yup-yup-yup-yup" in shear concentration of not screwing it up and being left with a fuel situation. The amount of traffic using each runway mean that once you get your takeoff clearence you have to race onto the runway and get out of there or the tower's gonna cancel your takeoff clearance while you're on the takeoff roll, it's happened a number of times where I've had to do a high speed RTO as the plane coming behind me was doing a G/A due to separation being too tight and he couldn't land on the same runway I was taking off on, I've been told to go around during the flare as the aircraft ahead of me decided to reject their T/O. When they decide to use RW13R/L and 22R/L similtaneously it's close to suicide. When I'm given takeoff clearance, I'm there screaming "GO-GO-GO-GO-GO-GO!!!!" and bringing up close to full T/O power and not even aligned with the R/W heading, still just turning onto it. That's just NOT safe opperations!!!! The worst of all is when you hear a pilot who first language clearly isn't english being issued with instructions to cross runways that you're taking off on. There was once a case where the pilot of an Air-India had just landed and was told "Hold short of runway till after the Aerlingus jet has taken off" - And me on the takeoff roll already, to which the Air India pilot responded: "Urmm, Cross the runway ahead of the Aerlingus jet" Which obviously resulted in us slamming on our brakes and bringing to the aircraft to a grinding halt though he didn't actually cross in front of us, he saw us coming but that scares the living day-lights out of me. Then the controllers are just plain rude at times. You learn not to request lower speeds on approach and instead just tell them "Shamrock slowing to 160knots", if they have a real problem, they'll let you know...And of course add in the infamous 40 minute taxi and JFK soon becomes my least favourite airport in the world...So all in all Alex, no, I don't fly to JFK if I can help it, mainly BOS and ORD for me, though MCO has the simplest operations but the worst layover.Capt. Rónán O Cadhain.

[dirtbox 0]

Should make my trip there in a couple weeks with you guys on EI105 all the more interesting :-) couldnt be worse than heathrow though surely o_O my last trip there we spent 30 mins working down a holding pattern then another 20 to gate. coulda been in malaga Quicker.. though saying that logan is always quite busy also, though i dont remember ever having to hold

[tutmeister 712]

Haha, that doesn't surprise me at all. I often enjoy listening to liveATC when I have to be in the office, so JFK is one I tune into on occasion and can't stand listening to them as it's just way too stressful, I can barely understand what they're saying and often thank myself for doing most of my flying elsewhere. The London Helicopter lanes are the most stressful place that I have flown through.

[Niall Hanley 0]

So, Rónán, I don't know if you've seen this, but from 22 minutes on, how do you feel about being considered a glorified peacock :wink:http://www.rte.ie/player/#!v=1132019

[Tatave 57]

Nice story! Thanks for sharing.

[Niall Hanley 0]

http://www.pprune.org/rumours-news/475734-etihad-a330-straddles-runway-edge-lights-low-vis-takeoff-auh.html- On a flight to Dublin, an A330 captain mulches up the runway edge lighting!!!! :( :( :Shocked:That sounds like a familiar Captain I know, you haven't taken up that offer and transferred to Etihad recently have you Rónán?