Friday 24th
A long day. Weary airline pilot picks up his trusty Parker to make another entry in the log book. Sighs……yes indeed, it is that time again, on Friday it will be August 24, 18 years since THAT day in THAT year. So much has happened, so many airlines, so many new and old friends, so many homes and of course so many hours in the beloved 777 which has kept him safe these long years.
Pilot reads PPrune….pilots hating pilots, pilots hating Jetstar, Qantas, Tiger, Virgin etc etc for no discernible reason. Still no single pilot union. Yet jobs everywhere in ways that could barely have been thought of 18 years ago.
Pilot sighs deeply. Since being invited not to be a part of the Australian airline scene 18 years ago unless he left his union, he has come to realize more deeply than ever that enthusiasm, professionalism and unity are the cornerstones of his world. With those three things all will work, without them, nothing else matters.
Pilot wonders whether there should be a “Dunnunda Good News” page on PPrune for those who are heartily sick of ignorant whingers who wouldn't know genuine hard times if they got bitten on the backside by one. Maybe. It is indeed just possible that Jetstar is not the complete embodiment of evil, that Branson is in fact a builder and a thinker, that Qantas is not riddled with a thousand corporate cancers, that Tiger will be good for the industry and create new jobs, that AIPA and the AFAP have lots of members and committee people actually doing their best. Its also possible that pilots should really go down a coal mine for a couple of days a year as part of their licence renewal, just to get their perspectives right.
Sigh….18 years….wouldn’t have swapped them for anything.