You are actually all right!
VB Captain, you are correct in saying that you were betrayed by your fellow pilots that crossed the line at Ansett and by an industry that lost it's way since the end of 1989. Nobody denies that...Colonel you're right in saying that it's terrible in General Aviation and the conditions may only get worse there, with aging aircraft, expensive fuel and restrictive authorities. Pinky, you're right by saying you should never give up!
My question to you is where is it going to end? How do you want to leave the industry when you retire?
I could have jumped the line and crossed in 1989, I could have paid for a commuter job here Stateside anytime during the early nineties. I didn't!
I flight instructed, flew air-ambulance in Cessna twins and Navajos and went to night school and did a Bachelor of Science Degree. I'm 35 now. I have seven type ratings and am a domestic and international captain flying bizjets for the world's largest employer of pilots in this field, Netjets. I've never paid for a job.
The answer to the question I have asked lay in the individual that chooses to answer it. Nobody can tell anyone what the answer is. We have to agree on a common solution though.
Unions can be made to work with the right kind of leadership, the membership must decide who that leader should be, and when the time comes, he or she, will be obvious to everyone.
I won't be able to read this post for several weeks. I have to do some test flying in Arkansas tomorrow, then next week I go back to Australia to handle some financial dealings in Port Macquarie, please don't think I am being absent in my concerns.
Sincerely,
Chris