One classic;
Ops scheduled me to fly a well known bod from an airfield near London to one outside R112 late one afternoon and back late that night. Simple job, airfield to private site, back in the dark, happens a lot in this job, airfield staying open for me, celeb a nice bloke, and weather looking lovely.
Atlas insisted on an IFR slot (well it was night) into an airfield with no IFR approaches. They then got totally knotted with IFR slots in the TMA, and insisted that the celeb should return at 21:45. When my ops told them that he would still be on stage at 21:45 Atlas told us that he would have to change his show times!
After two weeks worth of hassle the celeb went by road, we had wasted about 60 man hours of ops time and lost a £7000 charter. There was a total lack of understanding of GA before the event, some of the controllers were very good, others hidebound rule followers, we have done the sums re lost business and the figures hurt, esp as this is the busiest time of year for our rotary operation. If anyone in GA loses their jobs as a result of R112 and the stupidity which caused it I hope Lord Coe, Tessa Jowell et al will be there with profuse apologies, and compensation.