Niall Hanley

Looking awesome guys! ^_^

Funnily enough, that's exactly the thought that went through my mind as he said it, truth be told it was slightly unnerving and sounded just as captain van Zanten said it. It left a twinge in my stomach for the next few seconds until we became airborne.

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?

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

Agreed!In other news, another video from Aerlingus;

I hope you don't mind my asking, but since the flight two questions have been bugging me;1] What does TLA [as used above] actually mean? I assume it's an Airbus term as I've never heard it before in any of the Boeing videos I've watched.2] A personal question, how do you pronounce your surname? I was hoping to find out on the flight, but everyone just referred to you on first name terms and was too embarrased to ask.Niall.

Seeing how this has become a bit of an Aer Lingus thread, I thought I may as well post this here and congratulate Aer Lingus on their achievement, they deserve it.http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2011/12/14/thomas-cook-worst-airline-ryanair_n_1147595.htmlAnd sorry again about the video thing .

Slightly off topic, but seeing as this seems to be a thread on airline pilots and their lives, just looking at this video, how can the airlines employ pilots for such little money in the states? Surely something can't be right about this?I mean, compared to the salaries listed here: http://www.pilotjobs..._(ROI_Contract)the starting salaries are multiples of 3 or 4 times some of those wages listed. I'm interested to hear your opinions on this. I know EIN is a legacy carrier and all that, but I mean there can't be that big a gap.

That video certainly does show part of what I experienced on my trip with EIN that can't be re-created in the sim, but you didn't just post that video because you starred in it for a brief moment did you?

Too true, I'm taking your word for this Rónán.

Off topic, but isn't there something with the clock in airbuses when if you mess with them, the flaps jam? I remember seeing a sticker when I jumpseated in the A330 that said "NO MESSING WITH THE CLOCK". Just out of interest.

Gosh, thanks for all the compliments guys, I really appreciate it. Just trying to let you guys share part of a really great experience. And sorry for you being joked about Rónán. Tell ya whet, if you let me up front again, I'll write another article, and this time I'll brush over any incidents you caused. I've a feeling though that that's what made the story so good, between the paper being shot up, you being really anxious about back-tracking and turning on the runway and then that landing, without those, half the fun wouldn't of been there. Although, if it has been sent around as a circular email to all the pilots, then I hope they removed the bit about becoming a training captain, that could lead to some awkward encounters....

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.

Don't worry, I put in an alternate ending to keep you happy!

Alright, so as some of you may know, I managed to get on a jumpseat of an Aerlingus A330 from Dublin to Orlando two weeks ago and I promised I would write up a story about it. Having written up the story on my jouney back and then submitted it to Aer Lingus to be sensored and anything they didn't want or like edited out [They didn't edit or sensor anything BTW, but they did add a bit at the end, which could basically be translated into "Aer Lingus plc did nothing wrong. Do not sue Aerlingus plc" ] but I've just gotten it back today, so here yee go. It's quite long BTW, you may need to take yeer time. If you spot any errors or have anymore questions let me know so I can fix it and answer the questions. I did wait 10 days before writing it, and although I took notes some bits are going from memory so there may be some discrepancies. Alright, so here goes. It was a cool, calm morning. After checking in my bags with my parents, I headed off towards the Aerlingus Head office, ecstatic about what lay in store for me that day. As I stepped in the door to a 1970’s style entrance hall, I noticed a pilot sitting in leather armchair to the side, reading his paper. I walked up to the reception desk and spoke to the man behind the counter. “Hello, I’m Niall Hanley, I’m supposed to be taking the jump-seat to Orlando today, I was told to report here”. The man pointed behind my back to the pilot who was in the seat. He had stood up, with his paper folded beneath his elbow as he walked towards me. My immediate thought was that this was the F/O who was going to be on my flight today and had been sent to meet me. As he approached me, he extended his arm to shake mine, and said “Hello Niall, I’ve been expecting you, I’m Rónán”. My first shock of the day, this didn’t look like one of the senior captains of the airline, I wouldn’t have put him a day over 30 despite the fact that he’s actually 47. This was not what I had expected after reading all those posts of his on AVSIM. We shook hands and then he led me back over to the front desk, where I showed my passport and the letter I had received from the Chief Pilot, Davina Pratt. I was issued with two sticky badges that were stuck onto the front of my jumper, one, a “Visitor” badge issued by the DAA that would give me access to the ramp and crew areas of the airport, another, a badge from EIN labelled “Authorised Personnel”. And with that we set off through the locked doors, with the aid Rónán’s electronic thingy pass, off into the headquarters of EIN. We strolled down a few corridors, making idle chit chat about the weather, how I had gotten to the airport that morning and what I how much I was looking forward to the trip, until we arrived at the a nice modern room labelled “Crew Dispatch”. Rónán waved at two pilots that were standing by the far wall chatting and they came towards us. I was promptly introduced by Rónán to F/O Sam Burke and F/O Seán O Reilly. We all shook hands and greeted each other before Rónán said, “Right, let’s get a move on then shall we”. We all strolled up to a counter, and were met by Róisín, one of EIN’s dispatchers. “Morning Ró, Orlando please” piped up Rónán. “Ah, we drew the short straw today, did we?” she replied as she pulled out a folder from the shelves built into the counter and placed it up on top of the counter. “Have a guest up front today do we?” she asked. “Sorry Hi, I’m Niall Hanley” I quickly replied back, realising I hadn’t introduced myself yet to her. “Well welcome to Aerlingus” she replied back, “And enjoy your flight”, she said with a wink. She turned back to Rónán and told him to let her know if he had any problems. Rónán, who was standing there glancing through the file, replied “Will do”, as he closed the file and we started to move off in search of a desk where they could carry out their brief and look over all the files. Inside the folder was; The flight plan, with wind data and planed fuel for the flight [kind of similar to FSbuild flight plans but not totally], a list of NOTAMs effecting our departure and arrival aerodromes, alternates, en-route alternates, and the airspace we’d be flying through, weather maps and TAFs for those airports, a list detailing the critical status of the aircraft, which was blank apart from a memo stating that the aircraft had a full day of servicing and cleaning the day before hand, a map of our route drawn out, a list of the different NAT tracks and their waypoints, an expected weight and balance sheet, a list of company NOTAMs [never heard of these before, but they’re really just a list of updates to company procedures and SOPs]. Sam whipped out his laptop which had a built aircraft performance calculator, similar to topcat, and gave us a rough estimate of the figures that would be involved in our takeoff such as the V speeds and the runway we’ll be using in our takeoff run and. These weren’t the final figures as the load and balance sheet wasn’t the actual one but only an estimate. Rónán announced that he was happy with the figures and that he felt no need to add additional fuel to that which was already specified. Sam and Séan agreed and with that they packed up all the sheets into the folder again, the folder was placed into Rónán’s flight bag and at that point he asked if everyone’s charts were up to date. They all were and with that, Rónán strolled back up to Róisín at the counter and told her that the fuel figures were fine and that we were off and would see her soon. Next it was off out of dispatch to the crew lounge in the bottom of Terminal 2 at Dublin Airport. This is where some of the other crews from other carriers such as American Airlines, Delta and Continental [or United as it is now] get their paper work and Aerlingus crews meet up before the flight, but first we had to pass through security and immigration. There was a special immigration line in the border preclearance for crew and the security check for crew was down in the basement too which meant we flew through the whole process in about 10 minutes. We arrived at the crew room. Then the first incident of what was to be a very eventful day occurred; A crew from American Airlines was over by the wall on a computer, there was a counter with 7 computers lined up on it that outsider crews used to print up there flight documents that, from what I can make out, get emailed to their company emails from the dispatchers back home. They go through the paper work and then telephone the dispatchers back home to let them know everything is alright. Beside the computers were 3 big industrial printers, each printed in both A4 pages and long reams of perforated paper with holes along the side [sorry for the description of the paper roll, I’ll try find a picture somewhere]. But anyways, so this American airlines pilot was just about to print up his flight briefing, he sent it to the printer and then it happened. The printer started making a whirring noise and started to jerk about a bit. Now to me this seemed almost normal, like a sound most printers would make before they started to print, but on a larger scale, but within an instant of that noise, every Aerlingus pilot was frozen on the spot, staring at the printer as if it were about to explode.... it did. All of a sudden paper started spewing out of the printer from 3 different places. Paper was flying around to room; this printer was shooting the paper out of it with force. To describe it, take a look at this video from about 30 seconds on; http://www.evtv1.com...x?itemnum=10393 . Well with paper being flung around the room like you wouldn’t know it, everyone was staring on is shock, particularly the AA pilot, who was red in the face with embarrassment. With that, someone behind us screamed out “THE PLUG, GET THE PLUG!!!” Instantly one of the quick thinking pilots near the front leapt to the wall and yanked the plug out of the wall with almost excessive force. Instantly, the printer spooled down, like a jet engine being turned off, and with that, silence prevailed until Sam piped up; “Right Rónán, you know how to fix this don’t you...”. With that Ronan strolled up to the printer, pulled down the front panel, stuck his arm inside and felt around with his hand. Everyone still shell shocked and staring at him as he wiggled his hand about inside this machine. Then all of a sudden everyone’s head snapped towards the door which had just opened. There stood Davina Pratt, chief pilot at Aerlingus. “Oh not again [and sighs]” she said. “We need a new one, now!” replied Rónán, with his arm still rooting around inside the machine. ”Got it” He called out, removing his arm from the printer and closing the panel. With that, everyone just started to pick up all the paper that had been thrown all about the room and within a minute it was sorted. Well, my impression of pilots had now totally changed, not only were we all like deer in the headlights, but I’d already seen a much less glamorous side to the work of a pilot. Myself and Séan took a seat on a couch as Rónán and Sam walked up to a table and poured themselves a cup of coffee. As they came over to join us we were met by the team of eight cabin crew that were led by the number one, Sinéad Moore. We walked into one of the briefing rooms which I can only describe as like a classroom but with no windows. There Rónán gave a little speech, and I mean little, like 2 minutes, where he ran through things like turbulence and weather en-route and any expected delays or items that would affect the cabin crew doing their job. No turbulence planned other than when we would pass through the jet-stream about 3 hours 40 into our flight. With that he quickly took his seat and Sinéad stood up and also gave a quick speech about things such as passengers with disabilities and special meal requests. With that, Rónán downed the last of his coffee, and gave the command. We were to meet by the escalator in 5 minutes and be ready to go. He turned to me then and advised me that if I needed to go to the bathroom before we left, now was the time. I did so. Just to give yee a rough estimate of the time that has passed so far, the briefing took about 15 from the time I signed in at reception to the time we walked out the doors of dispatch, it was then a 5 minute walk over to T2 followed by the 10 minutes in security and immigration, followed by the past 15 minutes in the crew lounge. With these 5 minutes of a break before we head out to the aircraft, that comes to a sum total of roughly 50 minutes since I first stepped into this world and already it feels so natural, it’s amazing.Before we were about to head up towards the passenger area of the airport Rónán pulled me aside, and without trying to insult me, informed me that, due to company policy on upholding the image of Aerlingus Pilots and CC, that I wouldn’t be able to walk in line with them, but would instead have to walk beside them at a little bit of distance so as not to have people think that I in my hoodie and jeans was part of the Aerlingus Staff. “Fair enough” I thought as I agreed to this. With that we headed through 2 double doors, up an escalator to another set of double doors. “Big Smiles” Rónán called out, as if it were some kind of dance routine they were about to perform, but with that they had all arranged themselves into a line, with Rónán at the head beside Sam, Séan next to Sinéad and then the rest of the CC in toe. All had instantly put great big smiles on, and with that Sam swiped his electronic key thing against the scanner, and off they headed through the double doors into pier E of Dublin Airport. To me, it looked like a scene out of that “Catch Me if You Can” movie about the scam artist who masqueraded a Pan Am pilot, it was just so picture perfect, smiles on everyone’s faces, people laughing. It’s one of the major memories that will stick with me from my trip, its things like this that us flight simmers just can’t simulate. The majesty and grace of the airline industry is still alive. They strolled through the airport, wheelie bags in toe, making kid’s heads turn as they walked. Full uniforms blazing in the sunshine, shoes shining, but now on to the fun stuff.As we passed through double doors into the jetway I was reunited with them. As we arrived at the end of the jetway and stepped foot into the aircraft I was getting really excited about the trip. Rónán stopped at the entrance to the plane to talk with the engineer and be handed the tech log for the aircraft. I went ahead with Sam and Séan to the Flight deck. The CC split up and headed for their various stations, storing their baggage in closets at the galleys. We stowed our bags in a closet at the side of the flight deck. Rónán arrived up on the flight deck with the tech log in his hand, the F/D now a little crowded. Rónán and Sam took off their hats and uniform jackets before sitting down in their seats and adjusting them using electronic motors build into the seats. The switches for these motors are found on the side of each seat on the side facing the centre pedestal. As Rónán and Sam were the pilots that would be at the controls of the plane for the flight, it was left to Séan to perform the walk-around. With that, to my surprise, I was handed a Yellow high-visibility jacket by Séan and told to follow him for the walk around. The passengers would begin their boarding in about 5 minutes once the CC were happy and had done their checks on the safety equipment in the cabin and had all the food for the flight on board and stored. The No. 1 was going to be working in the business class section, although interestingly enough, there is no actual business class on flights to Orlando, only economy. We stepped back onto the jetway and out through a secure door, down a stairs and onto the ramp. We made for the nose wheel where Séan started his inspection by looking at the state of the pressure instruments and the nose wheel. It really felt like something from those ITVV movies. I was given the opportunity to stick my head up into the wheel well and take a looksy. As we walked around the aircraft and came back towards the number one engine, Séan gave me the chance to give the N1 fan a bit of a spin to my sheer delight. I leant in, [a surprisingly far distance and not too easy for a 16 year old] and gave them a spin, which was also sort of difficult, kind of stiff if you get what I mean, or maybe it was just inertia. As I moved back out of the engine, it struck me just how much more busy the ramp was in comparison to FS. I mean it really is crowded, between vehicles, and then people in yellow jackets just walking around almost aimlessly, FS just can’t compare to it. With that we were finished with our walk around and we headed up the stairs towards the jetway.At this point boarding of the aircraft was in full swing and we had to shuffle up through the business section of the aircraft to reach the flight deck. The final load sheet was handed to Ronan, which he signed off on and handed back a copy, [kinda like on those bank forms that make a copy automatically as the pen goes through the paper], Sam popped these numbers into his EFB and got the V speeds for the takeoff. The trim setting was also included on the load sheet Rónán received along with final fuel figures and an updated flight plan based on actual weights [though in fact, this one was the exact same as the initial one we received we found out later on in the flight as we compared them]. By this stage all the computers had been programmed by Ronan and Sam and the flight deck was in a sense, ready to go. With all crew members on board now, Ronan gave a fairly standard before departure brief in which he went through things like the SID, radios, engine out procedures ect. All fairly standard, however, one thing did strike me about the briefing; For the takeoff roll Sam was asked to callout “Airspeed alive”, “60 Knots”, “80 Knots”, “100 Knots” [above which the takeoff would only be aborted for serious engine damage which must be confirmed by 2 parameters, or a fire warning] “Approaching V1”, “V1”, ”Rotate” ect... Those two calls I found peculiar but when I asked later I was just told that that was a company procedure designed to increase the safety of the takeoff roll. At the “Approaching V1” call it’s a sign for the captain to glance at the engine instruments in advance of V1. Rónán reminded us of the sterile cockpit rules, though I felt that was more for my benefit. In full, the briefing contained; 8]· Rónán was doing the takeoff. 8]· Rónán would keep it centred on the runway, Sam would monitor speeds and call outs and Séan would monitor the engines. 8]· The runway in use and the procedure and route we’d use to taxi out. [Duel engine taxi out procedure]. 8]· The flap setting for the roll and the de-rate or flex as it’s called in the airbuses. 8]· What to do before V1. 8]· What to do after V1. 8]· SID name, route and limitations associated with the speed and vertical profile. [This was actually based on the SID they expected to receive as we hadn’t at that point received our IFR clearance to Orlando]. 8]· What to do if they lost radio comms. 8]· They use of the weather radar on the take off roll. WX Radar on. 8]· Expected initial climb altitude. 8]· Declared that no NOTAMs effected their operations. 8]· Asked if anyone had any questions.And that was it. The ground engineer came over the radio to tell us that all the PAX were on board and that the doors were closed. The APU was started up by Sam at this time. [As a side note here, it turns out that most aircrew don’t actually use the headset that comes with the plane, although the airline is obliged to provide them with one. Instead they use their own headsets that they buy personally. However, not wanting to fork out €400 for a headset that I could only use for one flight, I just used the default headset which was plugged into the 4th headset jack]. With that, Rónán leapt onto the PA and made an announcement to the PAX [or SLF as they jokingly refer to the as on the flight deck], he gave them an estimate on the arrival time, told them that we should be airborne within 15 minutes, introduced the flight crew on board and the CC, told them about the WX at the destinations and to expect some moderate turbulence about 3 hours 40 into the flight. Apparently this can help to calm nervous PAX but more on this later. With that done, Sam requested our ATC clearance, as expected, we were given the same SID they had briefed for, however we were cleared to a higher altitude than initially expected, but this was just dialled into the FCP by Rónán. With that done, we were sent over to the ground frequency where we requested clearance for the Push and start. Things were finally underway. Due to the time of day, Dublin Airport wasn’t too busy so we were given an immediate clearance for push and start by ATC. There was a Delta 767 that had just started taxiing out and we’d be taking off behind him. As Sam read back the clearance to ATC Rónán was already on the flight deck to ground engineer radio channel asking them to start the pushback the aircraft while busily flicking switches so fast that I couldn’t actually see which ones they were apart from the APU being brought online to supply the power and the bleed air, I saw that one. [side Note: You’re apparently supposed to give the APU a 3 minute run up time to allow it to warm up before putting the extra demands of it supplying bleed air and electrics]. Sam and Séan ran the before start checklist between them, practically just following Rónán’s moves, it was like an extremely well co-ordinated dance. The ground power was disconnected and quicker than I could take notes for; Rónán had the parking brake released. I mean, I had been told that things went quickly, but this was borderline ridiculous. Someday I will be as good as that crew; I have gained a new found respect for pilots. No delays and we were off the blocks, turning engine two first followed by engine one. Rónán was monitoring the No. 2 engine’s start sequence, but then transferred that duty to Séan, as he quickly moved onto engine No. 1. We could hear the CC over the PA speakers in the cockpit. [Another side note: The flight crew will usually keep the PA system on low volume over the loud speakers in the cockpit so as to maintain their situational awareness of what’s going on in the cabin. At the start of meal service, sometimes the CC will give a hint to the cockpit as to turn on the seat belt signs so that all PAX remain in their seats for the period. But that’s not the official company line I’ve been told ;-)]. Pulled forward by the ground crew to a predefined point set by ATC, Ronan called over the intercom that they were cleared to disconnect and that he would see the gear bypass pin on his side. With that said, Sam had already jumped onto the radios and requested taxi clearance, while Séan had grabbed the checklist and the after start checks were completed between himself and Ronan. Taxi clearance received, and the pin removed, Ronan brought the power up a bit, to quote; “I’m giving her a bit more oomph as were heavy today due to the fuel load, you just need to give it enought to break away and no more or you could do some serious damage”. As she started to roll forward towards the runway there appeared a runway inspection jeep in the distance between us and the Delta flight, which was nearing the holding point for the runway [i should point out that Runway 10 was in use at the time, despite the 1 kt tail wind]. Flaps extended, spoilers and autobrake armed, in a flash by Sam followed by the Taxi checklist by Séan, the flight deck was working like a well oiled machine. It was evident from the professionalism and skill that this was a senior flight crew. Taxiing down on the B6 taxiway, the Delta 767 was just lifting off, and the inspection jeep was ahead of us on B7. That’s when the second “Incident” of the happened. Just as we were approaching the E7 runway turn-off taxiway, the jeep, which was stationary, comes over the tower radio frequency and announces; ”Urm Tower, this is rescue 1, we appear to have a problem with our brakes in the car, they’ve jammed stuck and we can’t move, we’re gonna need to get a tow truck down here. Sorry” On that Ronan stood on the breaks bringing the jet to a grinding halt just shot of E7. From 20kts to nothing near instantly, it was quite the shock. The tower controller comes over the frequency; ”Alright Rescue 1, we copy the message on the brakes, we’ll get a mechanic out there ASAP. Shamrock 121, I take it from that quick stop that you might be able to make an intersection takeoff?” Rónán, glancing at the Sam and Seán, pushes the radio button on the side stick and responds back “Urm, I’ll tell ya what, I can’t take an intersection, we’re too heavy, but here’s what I can do for you. I’ll scoot in here, turn back onto 2-8, backtrack to the start of 1-0, turnaround and takeoff, how does that sound to you?”Tower: “Well there’s no inbound traffic for 4 minutes so you may as well, Shamrock 121 heavy, cleared to enter 28-10 at the E7 intersection, backtrack to start of runway and hold position, stand-by for takeoff clearance.”Sam: ”Cleared backtrack, standby for takeoff, 121 heavy.”And with that Ronan started moving us forward again, but slowly this time, glancing out his side window and getting ready to go around a fairly tight, 1450 corner onto runway 28-10. We slowly crept out and as we reached the runway, we were faced by another 1450 turn, this time to the right. We lined up on the runway centreline and headed down towards the end to begin our turn around for the takeoff. As we approached the point where we would have to make the turn, Rónán started to explain the manoeuvre; “The trick is to turn the aircraft 200 off the runway heading to the left, and we’re just gonna go out here, until my seat is just over the grass, It’s important to remember that the nose wheel is almost 22’ behind the front of the aircraft and 15’ behind the pilot” He said as he continually stared out of his window to see how far out he was over the grass. “And then, once over the grass, we give it full tiller, and hope to god it works out.... How’s it looking on your side Sam? I hate taxiing large airplanes, it’s the one thing I’m no good at” Not exactly inspiring me with confidence that we wouldn’t end up in the mud. We made the turn with little room to spare and then we we’re sitting in the centre of the runway, waiting for our clearance. [side Note: The phrase “Taxi into position and hold” is no longer used in aviation as it had resulted in confusion in the past, so now the standard phraseology is to “Line up and wait”]. Rónán quickly ran through the procedures to be followed again giving a quick overview of the routing, clearances and flap and flex settings. With that it was the “Cabin crew, seats for takeoff” call by Rónán. All lights on, the most exciting part of the flight was about to take place. Sitting on the runway, we were just waiting on our takeoff clearance now. The excitement and anticipation was building for me, but the thing I most noticed was that, from the moment that we had been cleared onto the runway, any hint of a smile or light hearted atmosphere had been flung out the window. All three pilots now had their game faces on. Rónán and Seán almost scowling they looked so serious. No messing, we were in the most critical phase of the flight. Then it came over the radios, “Shamrock 121 heavy, you are cleared for takeoff, winds light and variable, after takeoff follow the INKUR4E departure procedure, and contact departure on passing 1,000’, have a nice flight”. “Shamrock 121, cleared for takeoff, we’re rolling”, Sam replied. “We’re going” called Rónán and with that, he placed his hand on the thrust levers, followed by Sam who placed his hand directly on top of Ronan’s and then Séan, who placed his hand at the back of the throttles. Pushing the throttles up, you could feel the acceleration in the small of your back. “One One Five EPR, Flex detent” Ronan called, advancing the lever to the flex detent. Once that click came, both Sam and Séan instantaneously removed their hands from the thrust levers. “Flex 31, SRS, Runway”, ”Thrust Set”, “Airspeed alive”, “60 Knots”, “80Knots”, “100kts” and Ronan releases his forward pressure on the side stick, “Approaching V1” “V1” and his hand moves from the lever onto his lap as he calls out “Going” to affirm that the takeoff is now being continued, “Rotate”, “V2” “Positive Climb” and Ronan responds by motioning with his hand to raise the gear while simultaneously calling “Gear Up” And that was it, we were away. Off on our adventure across the ocean to Orlando. Climbing out Rónán hand flew the departure up to 9,000’ before asking Sam to engage the Autopilot, we were routing direct to INKUR as part of our SID. We had changed over to the departure frequency and accelerated to 280 knots. Just as we passed 10,000’ all three pilots, Rónán, Sam and Séan, hit their buckle release clip, releasing their shoulder straps and called out “Next stop Orlando” all in unison. Now this totally freaked me out. They held straight faces before bursting into laughter. A practical joke that they pull on their jump seat passengers and that was then to set the mood for the rest of the flight. Climbing out we were cleared about 4 times in total before we reached out cruise altitude. Sam got our oceanic clearance from Shanwick control and we received our NAT [same as already programmed], our cruise speed and our Atlantic Entry Time and waypoint. Basically, imputing a RTA into the FMGS. As we climbed, Sam placed a range ring around Shannon airport, our initial en-route diversion airport so we could see when we started to operate under ETOPS rules. And that was it, we reached our cruise altitude within about 32 minutes and we were off. Levelling off at an initial altitude of FL380, which would be our altitude until we came back onto radar on the far side of the Atlantic, Sinéad, the purser, entered the cockpit and took our initial orders for the flight, Rónán had the coffee and fruit salad, Sam the coffee and croissant, Seán had coffee and biscuits and I had tea and biscuits. We settled back into our seats. We began the flight by having each of the crew members give their “Life stories”. Rónán started the ball rolling. Born back in 1964, he is 47 years old. He grew up in Co. Galway on the west coast of Ireland [same county as me ;) ]in a rural Gaeltacht region [that’s a region where the main language spoken is Irish and not English], hence his extreme fluency in the language, I had wondered where that initial announcement to passengers in a blaze of Irish had come from, but back to the point. He went on to study engineering in Limerick University for 4 years, after which, he returned to home to Galway to work on the farm for another year while he was in search of work, finally he found a job with a small firm that specialised in making aircraft components. He worked there for a year before moving being accepted into the Aerlingus pilot cadet program in early 1988. There he studied for 14 months before he finished and was then brought onto the 737 classic series in mid 1989. With a fresh new type rating, he flew the classics for 6 years before being promoted onto the A330 series as a F/O at the beginning of 1995. The A330 series was introduced to Aerlingus in early 1994, so Rónán was one of the earlier ones in the company to fly on it. [interesting trivial fact here, but Aerlingus was the first airline to operate the Airbus A330-300 on an ETOPS approved flight]. It was at this time in which his eldest son, also called Rónán [how creative], was born. As he put it “Being on long haul was great for me at that time, to be able to get a good night’s sleep in a quiet room was a god sent”. His second son, Séamus, was born in that time too. In mid 2001, Rónán finally earned his upgrade to captain after 12 years in the company, moving onto the A320/A321 fleet. His third child, Maria, was born in 2003. There he served until he was finally upgraded to his current position as captain on the A330 in 2008. Not only is Rónán an avid aviator, but he’s also really involved in his local community. He serves on the board of management of 3 different schools, is on the local tidy towns committee and is a local scout leader. How he fits it all in, I don’t know. F/O Sam Burke was up next. Sam was born in Co. Tipperary in 1976 and is 35 years old. He studied computer science in University College Dublin before in his 3rd year; he left the university to accept a position as an Aerlingus Cadet in 1996. His training too lasted 14 months and he started with Aerlingus in 1997, like Rónán, on the 737 Classic fleet. In 2004, Sam was promoted to a F/O on the A330 fleet and is currently the second most senior F/O in Aerlingus. Sam and Rónán frequently fly together on the 330, as Rónán and Sam said, good company is the key to not getting bored out of your minds. Sam has 2 kids, Laura and Greg, ages 8 and 5 respectively and both in primary school. Sam still likes to fly smaller G/A aircraft and gliders when he gets the chance. Sam mentioned that he scored 100% across the board in both his ATPL and PPL exams, a feat I’m sure not many achieve, or at least neither Rónán nor Seán mentioned getting 100% in their life stories. F/O Seán O’Reilly was next to tell us his life story. Seán was born in 1981 in Co. Dublin and is 30 years old. After finishing his leaving cert, he studied general science, specialising in physics and computer science, in the National University of Ireland, Maynooth. Seán is the only one from the group onboard today that paid for his own flight training and didn’t come through the Aerlingus cadetship route. He got his ATPL from Oxford Aviation Academy in England and, following a 7 month unemployed period, has now been working with Aerlingus since 2003 where he started on the A320 and A321. He was promoted onto the A330 just under a year ago and is still fairly junior on the fleet. Seán is currently married and expecting his first child in about a month. He still plays Gaelic football with his local club and has won quite a few medals in his day. Next, Rónán asked if I had any more question on the life of a professional pilot, to which I responded by asking about the roster and seniority system. He gave a rundown of the system as it applied within the company. The A330 is the most senior fleet in the company, with most pilots striving for a seat up front. The A320 is a more junior fleet, although some senior pilots do prefer the short-haul life. When you enter the company, you are given a seniority number, when a pilot leaves the company, his number is passed to the person just below him and you move up like that. The higher you are along the seniority list, the better your working life. An upgrade onto the A330 or an upgrade to captain [although there are separate tests for this that you must also pass, but once you pass them, then the person with most seniority will get the command]. Routes also go by seniority. The higher up the seniority list you are, the more likely you’ll get the route you bid on. Some routes are liked within the company, others aren’t. As it turns out, this Orlando route isn’t. This would be due to the longer layover and that 99% of the passengers on board are families with young kids that get bored very easily on 9 hour journeys and think it’s their entitlement to visit the cockpit. So much so is this route so disliked, that there is a deal among pilots to split out the route evenly among them so no one pilot has to operate it all the time. The way it works out that most pilots will only operate the route 3-4 times a year. All the pilots take part in this arrangement bar two very senior ones who “Aren’t out to make friends” as Rónán puts it. Also, to help sweeten the blow, each pilot on the A330 gets one free day ticket a year for the universal studios theme park from the tour operators who use Aerlingus to fly their clients out to Orlando. These tickets are sometimes used as a bargaining tool when trying to swap flights with another pilot. Rosters are issued 4 weeks in advance of the week so pilots have a chance to plan their lives around their work. Legally, pilots are only allowed to fly 900 hrs a year, with a maximum of 100 hours in a month and 280 hours in 90 days. However, due to an agreement with unions, pilots at Aerlingus only fly a maximum of 820 hours a year. The duty day at Aerlingus is reduced from the maximum legal of 16 hours for two crew, down to 14 hours but they can still fly the maximum of 8 hours a day without union restriction. However, with an augmented crew like on today’s flight, pilots can legally fly for up to 14 hours and have a duty day of 20 hours. Again, unions have reduced these limits. An extra crew onboard, i.e.; an extra Captain and F/O can fly to infinity and beyond. Long haul pilots generally have a 2 [and a half really] on 2 off, 2 on 4 off. How it works is they start at about 11am on the first day and fly over, have 25 hours off then head home, arriving back in the early morning on the 3rd day. They then get the rest of that day off and the next day before having to go to work again. This roster doesn’t apply to the Orlando flight due to its reduced frequency. The short-haul pilots in EIN operate a 5 on 3 off, 5 on 4 off roster, though sometimes that gets a bit muddled up and they could be working a whole range of patters including 7 on 1 off. Occasionally, when new pilots are being trained onto the A330, the pilots with least seniority can be kicked back onto the A320 for a while, while a training captain takes their place, as Rónán grumpily pointed out, referring to how it had already happened to him twice this year, once for a 4 week period in mid-summer, and just there before this flight, he had been working on the A320 for 2 weeks. He pointed out, that after the last time he was on the A320 for a month back in the summer, that his first landing back on the job had not been pretty at all, owing to the different flaring techniques used on both aircraft. Next we moved onto the technicalities to do with the A330. The aircraft we were flying on [EI-DUO] was an A330-202, powered by GE CF6-8 engines. Christened as “St. Columba” she entered the Aerlingus fleet brand new from Airbus back in May of 2007. She is the 2nd oldest A330 in Aerlingus’ fleet. The A330-200 is a shortened variant of the Airbus A330-300 which was originally designed back in 1993. As a matter of interest, Aerlingus was the first airline in the world to fly the A330-300 on an ETOPS approved flight back in May of 1994. The A330 flight deck is based on that of the A320 series with a few subtle differences. The most noticeable is the extra FMGS in the centre-rear of the centre pedestal. The overhead panel is labelled slightly differently and the software in the FMGS is slightly different to the A320, It has added capability for ETOPS procedures. Airbus aircraft operate using fly-by-wire which means that the handling characteristics of the A330 are very similar to that of the A320 as the control surfaces are not directly controlled by the pilot, but by the computer instead. Airbus have replaced the centre control column with a side-stick, and the throttles no longer move in unison with the engines like traditional back driven throttles, but instead use gates to control the engines output. They can however directly control the engines if the pilot wishes, however the displacement of the lever may not be directly proportional to the engine power setting and instead the pilots should observe these “Doughnuts” that appear on screen to tell them the power setting. There are 6 main computerised displays in the cockpit, a PFD and ND on both sides for the pilots and then the Engine and warning display on top, with the System Display beneath it. Rónán also flew through lots of other technical details, but one, I couldn’t take them down fast enough, and two, there were way too many of them.By this time, we were about two and a quarter hours into the flight and it was time for lunch. Another aspect of life in the skies is who gets which meal. With Aerlingus, its captain chooses first, followed by co-pilot, followed by relief pilot. Séan mentions that in other airlines, the choice of meal is sometimes offered to the pilot flying and doesn’t go by seniority, to which Rónán jokingly responded that “With all my experience flying, I can tell you now, that the captain should always be given priority of meal choice, as failure to receive his specified could result in very unsafe conditions for the flight.” After which he turned to Seán and said “I’m not fussy, you can choose what you’d like and I’ll make my decision after that. “I’ll have the chicken and rice then”. “Damn” Replied Rónán, “I was hoping you wouldn’t say that, remind me never to give away my meal to you in future, I’ll have the salmon and pasta then”, “Looks like that leaves me with the Steak and mash then” piped up Sam. “What do you want Niall?” asked Rónán as he turned to face me. “I’ll have the steak and mash if that’s okay”, “No bother; I’ll get Sinéad up front now and give her our orders”. The food was very nicely presented on proper plates [a nice change from economy class] with an actual knife and fork. As for the taste, well, very nice as well, although the taste itself wasn’t too strong. Certainly it was a much better experience than I had been expecting given the reputation of airline food. Following lunch, we were given a choice of desserts. I myself choose the fruit salad and ice-cream along with Sam, while Rónán had a slice of apple tart and cream and Séan had some strawberry cheese cake. We all washed it down with a cup of tea, bar Sam, who had a glass of juice instead. Stomachs filled the flight was progressing very nicely, a strong headwind on our nose, we were cruising steady at FL380 across the north Atlantic.Next we started striking up a topic about aviation in general. Séan rose the issue of the amount of captains and senior F/Os that were leaving Ryanair to move onto other airlines and apparently it’s leaving Ryanair in quite a fix. They’ve over 30% of their fleet of 300 737-800s grounded at the minute as there are no crews left to fly them according to Sam, thought the official line from Michael O Leary is that fuel prices are simply too high. “About time too” commented Rónán, “If I’ve said it once I’ve said it a thousand times over, I’m sick and tired of hearing “But Ryanair can do it this way and that way and do it for half the cost” at management meetings, It’s about time they cop onto the fact that if they don’t treat their pilots right, then they simply won’t be able to remain in business”. Sam had heard from sources within Ryanair that things we’re not looking good at all in Ryanair's future, and that if the Terms and conditions for the pilots weren’t improved soon, that within the next 18 months, Ryanair will be no more. Apparently the airlines in the middle east such as Emirates, Qatar and Etihad were on a massive recruitment drive at the minute along with the long standing national carriers such as British Airways, Aerlingus, Lufthansa and others that treat their employees much better than Ryanair do, and this was turning out to be a bug pain for smaller airlines that had gotten away with offering poor terms and conditions to their pilots for the past 15 years. In fact, Rónán had even been offered a position with emirates on their A330 fleet as a training captain. Despite the “Very nice” pay deal being offered by emirates, of which Rónán would disclose nothing about, he refused the position, stating the facts about his young family, high seniority within EIN, the fact that he didn’t need more money and the super high temperatures in the middle east. Sam responded to this by stating “Yeh, but we all know that you’re gonna be the next training captain selected here, and that’s the real reason you didn’t move isn’t it?”. “No one knows who going to be the next training captain, sure I haven’t even applied for the position. It hasn’t even been officially advertised. Besides who’s to say I want to be a training captain?”. This was rebuked by Seán, telling us “Everybody but you knows that you’re the one they want to take up Joyce’s position when he retires in 3 months, and why wouldn’t you take it?” To which Rónán dismissed with a flick of his wrist as if to indicate that he had enough of these rumours. “I haven’t been asked, and until such time as I am, I shall not make my decision, but I shouldn’t bet on me becoming the next training captain”. And that was that.The next topic revolved around the layover and how the crew spent their time on layovers. In Aerlingus, it’s really only the long-haul that gets scheduled for layovers. As Rónán puts it, we only really have about 20hrs in total on the ground before we have to be back in the van for the airport. So from leaving the gate it goes as followed: They firstly gather up together and then head for the shuttle bus to the hotel they’ll be staying in. For most layovers they have, the hotel is fairly close to the airport to save time. They arrive at the hotel and check in before heading up to their rooms for about half an hour to get changed and freshen up. They then meet up down in the lobby. Each crew member is given a certain allowance for food per night when on a layover, this amount isn’t typically very much. The airline organises a deal with the hotel restaurant such that there are 3 different meals available for the crew that are covered by the food allowance, but most times the crew want to head out and do a little exploring, particularly if their hotel is in a central area near to other restaurants. When they meet up at the lobby they will usually decide where to go or whether to stay in. Usually one of the team will have heard of a recommended restaurant from either friends or family or sometimes even a passenger. Once they decide on a location they head out. Bearing in mind it’s close enough to the middle of the day when they arrive stateside, they can usually manage to get in for an early bird meal in the restaurants. After their meal, they usually return to the hotel, or if they’re up for it, go exploring or shopping around the area. Once they return to the hotel, they hold off on going to bed for as long as possible, usually gathering around in the hotel guest room or lobby and chatting amongst each other before finally heading off to bed when they can hack it no more. Once they get to bed, the general aim is to sleep for as long as possible and have as much of a lie in as you want. Sometimes they head to bed early and go exploring the next day, but that can leave you tired for the flight, so most spend their time catching up on sleep before heading off for the airport to catch the flight home. Sometimes when the crew have family in the cities they’re visiting they call in and visit them. Particularly in Chicago and Boston, both Rónán and Sam have family there. “It’s always nice to call in” Says Rónán “But sometimes they don’t always appreciate it, at least my niece didn’t when I gate crashed her party during the summer when she was over in New York on a J1. Though my brother was very grateful”, he said with a wink.After that it was time for Rónán to get up and give his seat over to Séan for the next part of the flight, with that and in a bit of a game of musical chairs, Seán took the captains seat, I took Séan’s central jumpseat, and Rónán took my jumpseat that was at the side of the cockpit. Our next topic was pilot etiquette that they must employ while talking and dealing with the passengers. As I mentioned earlier when we briefly touched on the subject, there is a very long list of do’s and don’ts associated with how a pilot should behave both in flight and in the presence of passengers. Pilots are never supposed to talk about defects or the aircraft’s technical status in front of the passengers. This can cause some distress to them. Rónán provided some humours examples of forbidden phrases; “I see the wings aren’t working, that’ll have an effect on today’s flight”, “Ah, the wings have a mechanical restriction on them, we’ll have to bear that in mind throughout the flight”, “The wings aren’t attached to the aircraft today, how interesting”. Curiously, he also said that saying that the aircraft is in perfect condition should also not be mentioned as it can be interpreted as that the aircraft sometimes isn’t in perfect condition. Also it should never be mentioned that the aircraft has just come out of a service, or is just about to go in to be serviced. He also says that there are also key words in sentences that should be avoided and replaced with less threatening phrases. For example, “Fog” should be called “Restricted Visibility”, a “Thunderstorm” should be called “Rain clouds” and instead of saying that there is turbulence ahead, you’re instead supposed to say “Bumpy air” or “Choppy air”. Who would have guessed? Also, pilots should never use overly technical terms when describing an issue they are having to the passengers, nor should they overly simplify the issue as this can give the impression that the pilot is not aware of what is going on. Rónán said it takes a lot of practice to get used to all these terms and how to paraphrase everything to make it sound less concerning. So much so as Sam said, that there is an unspoken rule among junior F/Os about being asked a technical question by a passenger, which is “Smile, nod, and let the captain interrupt with the PC answer” to which Rónán piped in “The truth, half the truth, and nothing but the truth”, ”After all this time, I’ve become a master of implying things that aren’t true, but using only the truth to do it”. How sly I thought.”Some more time passed by, before, out of the blue, Rónán got up out of his seat and reaching over Seán’s shoulder, turned on the seat belt sign. Seán and Sam exchanged a glance, before they glanced at both their watches and then reached back and put on their shoulder harnesses. “You should strap up too” Said Rónán as he reached for the telephone. He began to speak; “Ladies and gentlemen, this is Rónán O Cadhain, your captain speaking. We’re about to encounter that bit of rough air I talked about earlier so you’ll all have to stay in your seat’s but we should be through it in about 35 minutes. Cabin crew, secure the cabin and take your seats please.” And sure enough in about 7 minutes it started and went on for about a good 25 minutes as we bounced about a little, nothing much, a bit like going down a hilly road, the occasional butterfly in your tummy and a little shaking from side to side. After we got through it, it was time for another round of tea and biscuits. We were making steady pace at this stage. We then got onto the subject of the floods in Dublin earlier that week. Both Sam and Seán had been away in America at the time, but Rónán had spent both Monday and Tuesday of the week driving around with sandbags and building flood walls with them around his home town. We discussed a video which had appeared on you-tube about the floods, from what I could gather, they were talking about this video; We then moved onto comedy, and both Seán and Rónán did their impessions of two skits which were recently on tv. They can bee see at the following links if you’re interested, but both Rónán and Seán were very good. [Links posted below as AVSIM won't let me post this many in one post].Coming up to 7 and a half hours in-flight, the preparations for descent we’re starting to be made. By this time, Sam had taken his break and was now back in the co-pilots seat and Rónán back in his captains left hand seat, with Seán in the central observers seat and me in the side observers seat. With the wind blowing lightly from the north we we’re expecting to be cleared to either RW 35R or 35L. As they we’re running through their checks a call for the descent came through from ATC and to expect the ILS for RW35R. With that the plans became a little more concrete. Cleared down to FL310 we we’re beginning our descent, the end of an amazing adventure. The decent and arrival briefing was then done in full. Having gotten the ATIS from ACARS they went through the different frequencies and nav aids that they’d be using on our arrival, the weather for both Orlando McCoy, Orlando Stanford and Tampa which we’re our two alternates. It’s probably easier just to give a list of what they went through so here goes;85]· Weather 85]· Nav-aids and frequencies 85]· STAR 85]· Decision height 85]· Missed Approach and G/A 85]· Runway condition, Auto Brake and flap configuration. 85]· Taxi in After landing 85]· Diversion and fuelWe we’re to be vectored off the STAR onto the final localiser course once we reached thelast waypoint of the star, the ILS was to be flown as a CAT I approach with a decision altitude of 290’. Missed approach was straight ahead to 3,000’, followed by a right turn to intercept the 240 radial from the ORL [Orlando] VOR, then hold at PRESK. The runway was dry and we’d be landing with full flap. Rónán decided not to use the auto-break and instead to let the aircraft roll to a stop with small amounts of manual braking so that we could exit off RW35R onto taxiway J. We would divert if at Rónán’s discretion but he couldn’t see that happening as we still would have over 1.5 hours of fuel on arrival. Seeing as Rónán had just come off the A320 after 2 weeks of flying that aircraft and that this would be his first landing back on the A330, he asked that, as we approached the runway in the final 2,000’, that either Sam or Seán would call out A330 so as to give him a final reminder as not to slam the thing into the ground as if it were an A320. Sam had gone onto the company’s frequency that would be looking after and servicing the aircraft once we arrived and found out our gate. We would be taxiing to airside 3 in Orlando.They also made a plan for in case they we’re given a last minute runway change to RW35L, going over its ILS frequency, DA was the same, the missed approach procedure differed in that we went straight ahead to 3,000’ before turning to a heading of 5 degrees intercepting the ORL 049 radial, then entering the hold over OVIDO. Flaps full would still be used, no auto break would be used as Rónán wanted to go as heavy on the breaks as practical to try and get off the runway at the on the Foxtrot or Echo taxiway to avoid a lengthy taxi up and then back as we would be going to Airside 3, which was on the southern side of the airfield. He would also use maximum reverse if offered RW35L to reduce the wear on the break. Again, “A330” was to be called out at 2,000’ and Rónán was to be reminded on touchdown that the auto breaks were not being used. The descent kept going and we were issued with altitude clearance after clearance. Coming up to 13,000’ Rónán spotted an aircraft on the TCAS, he pointed it out to us, believing that we could come into conflict with it, sure enough within about 10 seconds of saying that, “Traffic, Traffic” could be heard around the cockpit. Rónán, reaching over to the V/S dial on the FCP, dialled in a lower descent rate, while Sam reported the warning to ATC. As soon as it had started, the conflict was over and we continued on with our descent. It’s strange to see people actually reacting like that to a TCAS, usually in FSX, I’ll just carry on and fly as I would, but of course, that just isn’t realistic. We descended a bit more before Rónán disengaged the autopilot at 10,000’, declaring “Autopilot coming out” followed by”Auto thrust coming out. TLA” to which both Sam and Seán responded to by also announcing “TLA”. Approaching downwind we started to get our ATC vectors for the final approach. Cleared to the base leg Rónán was now flying using the ILS Rose display. Flight directors were also engaged, and everyone bar myself had their sunglasses on. It was very bright in the cockpit. Almost uncomfortably so. It was at that moment that ATC offered us a visual approach for runway 35L, to which Rónán responded by giving a thumbs up signal with his right hand. Sam responded back to ATC and accepted the visual for 35L. We had started to turn onto finals for the approach. “Alright, revert to...” said Rónán before being interrupted by a traffic warning from ATC saying that there was a southwest 737 making a parallel approach onto RW36L, to which Rónán glanced out his window, squinting a bit before giving a thumbs up once again. “Traffic in sight”; responded Sam. “Alright, revert to RW35L plan, hard on brakes and reverse and try to get off by Fox or Echo, If I go missed I’ll go straight to 3,000, right to 5, then the 049 to the hold.” Said Rónán as he finished his sentence. “Flaps 2”, called Rónán, “Speed checked, Flaps 2” called Sam, “Flaps 3 and get the Gear down”, “Speed checked, flaps 3, gears coming down”, “And flaps full if you would”, “Speed checked, flaps full, A330”, “Thank you” replied Rónán. The last 1,500’ of our journey were coming up. Seán picked up the phone and announced “One minute to landing” over the intercom. Final landing checks complete and the “Landing; no blue” memo on the screen, we were good to go. The approach was smooth with only a light breeze from the north and no crosswind. It was plain sailing, yet the final incident of the day was about to happen, and it was a memorable one. “200 above” called both Sam and the computer at the same time, Rónán now focused fully on the runway ahead. “100”, called the computer, “50”, ”40”, “30”, “20 Retard, Retard” it called out as Rónán moved the levers into the idle detent, before realising his mistake and announced “Oooops” just as “10” was called [which scared the crap outta me] and he pulled back on the side stick before we slammed into the runway with an almighty bang. For those of you who’ve landed hard before you will probably be used to this, but to me it felt as though I were stuck in the tail of this aircraft;[Link Below] We were all thrown forward in our seats, Sam shouted out “On the brakes” to which Rónán responded by shouting back “Breaks, max reverse”. We quickly began deceleration very fast, with Sam calling out “100 knots, 80 knots” in quick succession. Rónán called out “Reverse Idle” followed by a “60 knots” call out from Sam, followed by “reversers stowed” by Rónán. We ground to near a stop and at about 10kts, Rónán took the pressure off the breaks and everyone fell back into their seats, it was perfectly judged as we were just at the turn-off onto taxiway echo. “Well, there we go” called out Rónán as if nothing had happened in an attempt to cover up the most atrocious landing I’d ever felt. We were sent over to the ground frequency and Sam thanked the tower before we changed for giving us the visual onto RW35L.After landing checks complete, we were now on our final taxi in. “I’ll just make an announcement” said Rónán, “Ladies and gentlemen, this is the captain speaking, we have arrived, please remain seated while I taxi us to the gate, thank you for flying with Aerlingus, I hope to see you all again soon”. “Did you really need to tell them we’d arrived???” Questioned Sam, “I think everyone on the plane knows that after that landing” he laughed. A sheet started to print out from the printer on the centre pedestal. “Well, what’s the damage” asked Rónán, looking guiltily at Sam. “She’s gonna need to get the gear inspected, you were over the landing G limit”. “Damn” replied Rónán, very disappointed. It was at this moment a chime went off and “Brake temp” was illuminated on the screen. “Ahh the icing on the cake, lucky me” piped Rónán, almost sounding upset with himself. The APU was started and the generator brought online as soon as they were available. We arrived at the gate, being guided in by a marshaller. Once we had come to a stop, Rónán set the parking brakes and cut the engines. “Welcome to Orlando” called the ground mechanic over the channel, “I saw that landing, does the gear need to be inspected?” he asked. “Yup”. “Are the brakes overheated?”, “Yup”, “Right, chocks are in so you can release the brakes now”, “Brakes are off, I’ll be down in a few minutes”, “Alright see you then”. “I’m going to make an announcement to the passengers” said Rónán. “Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Orlando Florida. I wish you a happy holiday from all of us here on the flight deck and from the cabin crew, It’s been a pleasure to fly with you and we look forward to seeing you again on another Aerlingus flight in the near future. We’re just about ready to open the doors, you’ll be exiting via the 2nd door from the top on the left hand side. Thanks again and have fun”.And that was it, they completed the parking and shut down checklist and wrote in the logs for about 2 minutes, before I stood up to leave and rejoin my parents and family. Rónán turned around and knelt on his seat and I shook his hand to say thanks, followed by Sam and Seán. It’d been a real eye opening day for me, and with that I left. I’d like to take this opportunity now to thank Rónán in particular for arranging this flight for me, but also Sam, Seán and the whole team at Aer Lingus, they really are great and I don’t have the words to say as to how proud they made me feel to be both Irish, but also to be a pilot. The status of airline pilots has declined quite rapidly in recent years, but after my experience on the flight deck, I have nothing but total and utter respect for anyone who does the job. Now to protect Rónán’s ego, I’ve added an alternate ending; We were flying such a smooth approach it was amazing. We landed so well, with all or Rónán’s piloting skill, grace and prowess, it was probably better than this landing; [Link Below]Happy flying,Niall Hanley.This article is the property of both Aer Lingus plc and that of Niall Hanley. It shall not be reproduced on any forum or website other than the PMDG General forum on the AVSIM forums without the prior consent of both of the above parties. The views expressed in the article by employees of Aer Lingus plc are not that of Aer Lingus plc and bear no link with our official company policy. Aer Lingus plc respects the individual views of the employees in this article. Aer Lingus plc strives to create a safe and efficient atmosphere in its workplace and all actions carried out in the creation of this article conformed to those practices. Aer Lingus plc would like to extend its thanks’ to Niall Hanley for the production of this article. Aer Lingus plc would also like to extend its thanks to the crew on the day in their display of professionalism while carrying out their duties. Aer Lingus plc would however like to stress that this professionalism is not a once off event and that it is standard across all our operations. Aer Lingus plc is an equal opportunities employer. Aer Lingus plc does not discriminate on the basis of age, gender, race, creed, orientation, ect.Aer Lingus – Enjoy Your Flight. - Seán Comedy Impressionhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wHnFYMHrFE - Rónán Comedy Impressionhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIEkSs3fsDw&feature=fvwrel – Rónán, Pt 2. -Bad Landing - Good Landing

Good to know for definite, Thanks.

Haha, the mighty and wise Rónán is finally thrown by a question, at least ya can admit it when you were wrong! See ya on thursday, can't wait ;D

Did you? But at Jason, how do you know what they are for? Not to question the real pilot, but maybe they have a duel purpose?

Ahh right, didn't think of it that way, oops!

Don't you mean when you moved from the A320 onto the A330? Bit of a strange way to go that way?

Thanks Simon, you always go to such trouble to dig out the really technical answers for us. It's much appreciated. Looking forward to seeing this in action in 3 weeks time, can't wait, again, thanks for the technical answer to these questions, always appreciated.

If it's a corrupt DLL, could you just download a new one and replace it?

Got an email back from EIN . They got my forms in the post this morning, all good to go and all I have to wait for now is my Garda Vetting, which should come back as clear anyway as I've no criminal record . Jump seat here I come. Next month can't come soon enough, I think I'm looking forward more to the flight over than I am about the actual roller coasters.

Phew, god you scared me there for a sec, will do. Child protection policy? Doesn't even seem related to aviation. All these forms, seems endless it does, I'm sure it'll be worth it in the end anyway.Thanks Rónán, you don't know how much I appreciate this, it's always been my dream to be on the flight deck of a big long haul airliner.

The ones that all end with the -A, is this important? An yeh, I'm under 18 years old, will I still be able to come? Please say so!