#TBT Aer Lingus First Boeing 747 (EI-ASI.) 7 Years Old and Flying a Jumbo!

 "Last night as I lay dreaming of pleasant days gone by, me mind being bent on rambling, to Ireland I did fly" and I thought about the first Aer Lingus Jumbo Jet, EI-ASI.

 Delivered to Aer Lingus in December 1970, this Aircraft ferried thousands of people across the Atlantic (DUB-SNN-JFK) both easterly and westerly.  Many Irish Immigrants began their new lives in the United States after stepping off this Bird in JFK!   I was lucky enough to fly this aircraft sometime in 1972. (RTE Inaugural Flight Footage.)

It was not my first trip to the United States but certainly one of my most exciting. My dad (pictured in the cockpit above) was thrilled that he could show-off his companies newest aircraft to his young family.

Taking-off from Dublin was uneventful but when I landed in Shannon and found out that Capt Tony (name obscured to protect the innocent :)) was flying the plane.  I knew that I was in for a treat. 

The Captain invited me up to the cockpit to sit in the jump seat for take-off. Though I had been in the cock-pit of this aircraft on the ground and I had already logged a couple of flight-deck departures, I could not contain my excitement.

"Airspeed Alive", I heard through the headphones.   "V1, V2," as the plane rumbled down the runway towards a bleak Limerick sky.  And finally "Rotate" as we broke away from the ground and the hold of gravity.  Even today, I am amazed that something so heavy can actually fly!

At about 14000 feet we broke out over the typical Irish rain clouds.  And what was seen from my vantage point was a sea of hills and valleys made up by the contours of clouds.  Capt Tony turned round and asked me if I would like to Fly the plane and unbuckled himself from the left seat.   He instructed the FO and the flight engineer to level off and hold altitude just above the cloud line.  He seated me in the captains chair and told me to hold on to the control yoke.

 He then instructed me to fly into the cloud valleys and over to mist created hills.  For about five minutes, I steered the Jumbo round the clouds and felt as if I was really flying.  Capt Tony said to me "that is probably the closest that you will ever get to feeling what it is like flying that close to the ground.

Sadly, this Aircraft has since been retired and cut up for parts and not-so-long ago, I ran into EI-ASI as part of my work in Acropolis Aviation.  I was searching for a Crew Seat to sell to a customer in Asia and someone quoted me the First Officers seat which traced back to Aer Lingus EI-ASI.  If it had been the captains chair, I may just have bought it and kept it for the memories.

UPDATE:  The people in the Picture are as follows:

Oliver Boden - First Officer's Chair
Ciaran Mulhall- Captain's Chair
Dennis O Connor- Kneeling
Colm Fitzgerald - Flight Engineer's chair

Thank you to everyone who helped me get these names!

Aviation from Alpha to Omega, One Customer at a time!

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