A head for heights

ROBBIE CONROY grew up close to Dublin Airport. He was within ear-shot of the planes all through school and always wanted to be a pilot. Now he works with

Aer Lingus as a first officer. His job involves sitting in the right-hand seat of the cockpit and co-piloting a Boeing 737 Jet. On average during the summer, the peak time for airline companies in this country, he flies five days out of seven. "No," he says with a steady, unblinking gaze, "I would not swap my job for any other. I wouldn't give it up. There's too much variety."

On a typical day, he flies to London and back twice. During the summer there are longer flights to places such as Greece and Turkey. "No two flights are the same," he explains. "Just when you think it's starting to get routine, something unexpected happens, like an airport closes down, and you have to come to life and redirect the whole operation in order to get the airplane down safely. You are running against the clock, which is the fuel. .. You have to work well under pressure."

He says that people are very curious about a job, which has a glamorous and a romantic image. "When you meet someone for the first time, you end up talking for hours on end when it's revealed that you fly for a living."

When Conroy finished his Leaving Cert in 1981, he got a clerical job in an insurance company. Three years later he moved into the company's computer-programming section, after studying at night for a diploma in computer studies.

He was 25 when Aer Lingus began another recruitment drive for pilots in 1987 and although he was very happy in his office job, Conroy decided to fill in the application form.

Over the next four years, 10,000 people applied to Aer Lingus. Only 200 were selected. The selection process was very thorough, says Conroy. Applicants were asked to attend two interviews, an aptitude test and a psychological assessment. Training of the cadet pilots involved a 14-month stint at a flight training school in Perth, Scotland.

Training is a mixture of theoretical study and practical training, which involves completing 200 hours of flying in a two-seater plane with an instructor. There was a further two to three months of training back in Dublin.

"There isn't a need for super intelligence," says Conroy. "You need reasonable intelligence.

There's an academic side to it, but it's not over complex. You do have to have to be co-ordinated."

He believes it is essential to have a clearly defined hierarchy on a plane. His job is to be of assistance to the captain, providing back-up. "At the helm is the captain who has overall responsibility for the aircraft from the time the doors close until the time the doors open."

It can take between 12 and 15 years before a pilot becomes a captain. "It's a long apprenticeship, building up experience," says Conroy. "There's a difference between being proficient and the ability to command an airplane. In a routine day's work the role of the captain might be slightly transparent. There isn't a huge input. It's only when problems occur that the captain's experience and knowledge come into play."