Feather #3
I well remember an occasion not so long ago in a "Northern Australian Port" when relations between ATC and our flag carrier were deemed to be temporarily less than peachy. There had indeed been certain incidents involving IMC, DME arrivals and LSALTs, the odd aircraft (under the command of a check-captain no less, or so the story goes) helping itself to a takeoff clearance into the teeth of inbound traffic and other occurences of such ilk.
Airline and ATC management, in their infinite wisdom, decided that because so many of the crews of that carrier, both long and short haul, overnighted in the port each evening that it would be of great benefit to both tech crew and ATC alike to gather and enjoy refreshments and have a "group hug".
With the sagacity that comes only with the experience of management, it was deemed appropriate for cool drinks to be taken in the downstairs bar of the Hilton prior to repairing to a conference room upstairs for discussions which would undoubtedly lead to the exchange of Xmas cards and declarations of mutual undying respect and admiration.
With the clarity that only comes with hindsight, the esteemed managers realised too late that they had seriously underestimated the amount of refreshment that a group of pilots and controllers with honest thirsts and a following breeze could indeed consume. The wisdom of the decision to provide an "open tab" was, I thought at the time, unfairly questioned.
When all concerned moved to the aforementioned conference room (some had to be assisted, as they were weary) it was apparent that discussions were going to be both frank and fruitful.
Such was the magnitude of the occasion that the management rocket scientists had forgotten that extra refreshments had been ordered for Part 2 of the "Hug".
The assembled players attacked the new stocks with a remarkable vigour, given their efforts so far. The planned question and answer session seemed to deterioate somewhat, with one controller in particular giving the assembled pilots and in fact all pilots, males and the bloke who brought in more beer a bit of a free character assessment. The controller concerned drew a comment from one of the pilots that "she was definitely punching above her weight.
We took these assessments "on board", as it were, with hardly an interruption to the rate of consumption. The general consensus was that the evening's intercourse (in the intellectual sense of course) had set back Airline/ATC relations definitely no more than about 10 years, and if management cared to put their collective hand in their pocket again, we would gladly attend.
In vino veritas