capt w, it is all well and good for you to sit there and comment on my attitude, actually the coffee the knockers on the crew make is very good, wish i could say the same for mine! unfortunately some of the people at kinloss don't have the same attitude as old charlie boy, and the money issue has caused frition between members of a few crews, i enjoy working on the nimrod as already stated, and would like to see the guys up to full manning, it was only the other day i was presented with a piece of paper by one of the guys stating that in the last year he'd not spent one school hoilday at home with his kids, now if we can solve the problem get more poeple in the it makes for a happier force and more efficent performance. the past few weeks have been awkward as the retention bonus has caused more than a few ripples. my point is that everyone is short of people and just as i can't expect to get the same money as a sqn ldr, some of the knockers can't expect to get the same money as a flt lt, i think that is a perfectly reasonable point. if only i could get sqn ldr's pay, would be nice!