Clotted, I dont know who you are but I know who I am and more importantly, I know the people I fly with.
Most of them are like me. They decided at an early age.. I was 6.... that being a Qantas pilot was all they ever wanted to be and set about trying to achieve that dream.
I was one of the lucky ones who managed to do exactly that. The Qantas I joined was not perfect, but it stood for something. The Flight Operations department of QF, alongside of the the Engineering department were international bywords for operational excellence.
You wouldn't have seen what I have seen over the years. I was sitting in Singapore one night waiting to depart when a CB arrived over the airfield. Other airlines were calling for clearance to go when the skipper I was with decided we were going to wait this one out, even though that meant delaying the flight. He told me to cancel our clearance and as soon as we did eight other flights from other airlines did the same thing. It was almost as if that because QF had decided to wait, then that was good enough for them as well.
I personally sat on the threshold of one of the runways at Hong Kong for an hour, waiting for a wind report from the tower that I would feel comfortable departing with. We had seven aircraft of different airlines in the queue behind us and not one of them uttered a peep.
When I got to destination over an hour late, not a word was heard from my management, because the day I checked out in command they told me that they would never question one of my decisions if it was based on safety.
I have many other examples of the same phenomena.
I use these examples not to blow my own horn but to point out to people like you that the QF I joined had a culture that meant something the world over.
The reason I post here, and do other things that I won't mention is because I am angry. I am angry that non-aviation blow-ins who know the cost of everything and the value of nothing, are mid-way through the destruction of that culture that took 90 years to create and once gone, will never be seen again.
I am angry because good people, who jumped the same hoops I did, who took up a job offered in good faith, are having the rules of the game changed on them through no fault of their own.
I am angry because I have to sit through .... what is the classic phrase?..... an orchestrated litany of lies?? ...... every time I read anything from the mouths of my so-called leaders.
They lie with a fluency that belies a total lack of integrity, and a belief that the ends, justify whatever means used.
You cannot run a business such as this without integrity. I get emails from Joyce, Strambi and the chief pilot. I delete them instantly. I can no longer sit through the crap they sprout.
About 8 years ago, Qantas management apparently decided that they needed to change the Company. Fair enough. The only problem is that they never told the employees. So they set about their task by using deceit. The lies they told in the intervening years are well documented on this forum.
The toxic culture of lying is so embedded they even used it on their Jetstar employees, who were the vanguard of this change whether they knew it or not. You ask any Jetstar employee how much they trust their management... the answer will be very illuminating.
The attempt to force change by stealth and deceit may be just about to hit a wall. If it does and takes this cast of clowns down with them I shall dance in the streets.
I love my job. It is all I ever wanted to do. But the destruction of a safety culture for reasons that will enrich a select few, a few that will probably avoid the smoking hole in the ground that will inevitably result, is something I will not stand idly by and watch.
Those who know me know what that last sentence means. I dont spend all my time here reading the uninformed drivel of the likes of you. Lets leave it at that.