I am also a Thomson pilot 'career breaking' elsewhere .The sensible and mature negotiation between the union and the company has allowed me to take advantage of this scheme.I also voted like the vast majority of my colleagues for a small pay cut in order to retain our most junior pilots-nowhere near the 5% quoted by the Ryanair spin machine.I confess to being truly shocked by the Ryanair memo to its pilot corps.If this is the demonstrated level of intelligence and literacy that Ryanair management portray then the pilot group have my sympathy.The premise that we live in a democracy on both sides of the Irish Sea seems to be lost.The overriding impression is that Ryanair are running scared of Balpa involvement and have pressed the panic button.Good luck,chaps.