Yep, great. All that stuff happened. It's in the PAST. Yes it was horrible, weren't Qantas pilots arrogant, weren't dispute pilots naive, weren't Jetstar pilots undermining everybody and weren't the rest of us all silly for just standing by doing nothing etc but for crying out loud LETS MOVE ON.
Bushy - "Pilots have to THINK, and get rid of that tunnel vision" Absolutely. well put.
Shark Patrol - "For this industry to have any future, a single pilot union is not only desirable ... it is essential!" Spot on.
Right now we are at a fork in the road. This is THE perfect time to join forces and intelligently, strategically and masterfully battle the greedy CEO's of the world like Dixon who happily sneer with delight as your profession is denegrated and (as the recent Good Weekend magazine nicely portrayed) take money straight out of your wallet and put it into theirs. Why battle each other when we should focus our attention on individuals such as that?
Time will tell whether in 20 years we will still all be bitching at each other on PPRuNe like babies or have actually done something tangible to change our fortunes. A good start would be for the AFAP to get on the blower to the AIPA and join with the VIPA and J* group etc to create one umbrella organisation.
For the sake of all of us let bygones be bygones and realise that our future globally is very bright and if some industriousness is employed, our future in Australia can also be very bright.