A sign of the times

[goatface]

Just recieved this email from a very close friend who's been in aviation for longer than I have, this is not the entire content, but I think that it sums up what we all have to tolerate these days:

Things have changed inordiantely since you and I spoke every day, now I just go to work, do the job to the best of my ability, take the salary and go home.

Sadly, we can no longer do "grown up's aviation and follow common sense", we must abide safety management systems, the law of cover your six a clock and the corporate "do or be done syndrome".
What makes me angry is that the people we used to respect as regulators (for both pilots and atcos) who used to be in the field regularly and be able to offer professional common sense advice, are now just auditors at the behest of the CAA top neddys and the EASA paperpushers, and what's worse is that the people who now do that job certainly aren't in the same category of the inspectors we formerly respected.

They've made no difference other than to increase the number of ATSINS, local Supplementry Instructions or Temporary Operating Instructions we have to read and absorb on a daily basis - it would probably be of no suprise to you that I had to read 11 of these usless pieces information before taking over watch yesterday.

Anyway, enough of that nonsense, it's been a lovely day here, my rhubarb wine from last year must be approaching rocket fuel value and I look forward to your next visit, (sans le other like minded chaps), to evaluate it's quality and to reminice of the real world and how things used to be before little people with big egos. took over our world..

[captplaystation]

I think we all know where your friend is coming from. . . . . unfortunately :} :ugh:

[downwindabeam]

Don't think it's different on the other side of the pond. Just change the names CAA for FAA, and you get the same thing.

Small people with gigantic egos.

Truly sad what this has become.

[Wiley]

For pretty well all my career, the thought of the Big 'R' has been something I've ignored or hoped I could put off for as long as possible. However, I'm now approaching it with something approaching enthusiasm.

I'm going to miss flying aeroplanes terribly, and realise that every time I climb from a dull European winter's day and break clear of a solid band of stratus to find myself skimming along its top at 320 knots with a glorious blue sky above, or see the northern lights, or overfly the Himilayas at F330 and see the incredible peaks only 7000' below me, close enough to see the tracks of the mountain climbers...

However, (a bit like the 'two buckets' theorm beloved of many who've spent any time living the the Middle East), all the other rubbish that has all but overwhelmed our professional lives in between flights - and the seemingly implacable desire of management to ensure we have no quality of life in between flights, with utterly crazy and (surely, in the long term), self-destructive 'rest' policies, (both in-flight and between flights), makes me realise how lucky I am to be the age I am, approaching the Big 'R'.

The saddest aspect of all is the number of colleagues 20 years or more younger than I am who profess to envy me. When I was their age, I was lucky beyond belief - I wanted it to go on forever. Thanks in great part to the factors mentioned in the first post, too many of them see the job today as a sentance, something that must be endured to put snags and three veg on the table.

[muduckace]

Same problem all over. As a result of liability corperations place policy and procedure over common sence. The leaders with the true ability to suceed are smart enough to not want any part of the system and those who love to abide suceed.

Our society is in a state of regression (the most technologically advanced first). The layman term is we are being dumbed down.

There is no pretty fix for the mess we have gotten ourselves into. Slapping a lawer around a bit may make you feel better though.

[singpilot]

I spent 37 years airbourne. Thought it would never end. Have seen a lot in that time.

Ditto to all said above. Can't believe I'm admitting this, but when an 'early buyout' was offered two years ago, I took it. My salary at retirement bought 6 newbies.

Do I miss the flying? Yes.

Do I miss the travelling? Nope.

Do I miss my years of friends? Yep, every day.

Do I miss what commercial aviation has become? I despise it.

Would I do it again (retire early)? Probably.

The bull droppings got out of CG. The accidents/incidents are saying something to everyone if you are far enough away to see it. Lack of BTDT.

I retired right under J7, just west of Mt. Lassen, CA. Every day at 1300-ish local, a lot of my old flights go overhead (Europe to SFO/LAX).

Seeing the 4-engine wake curl back on itself and debrade into rings is not quite, but almost the perfect reward for all the lessons learned.

Every once in a while, one of my crews will make a small S-turn overhead to say hello.

[Brian Abraham]

....... and Captain, why did you make that small S turn? Do you realise the added cost to the operation by your frivolity? Sad times indeed. Beancounters :yuk:

[Fly3]

I would endorse everything Wiley has said. I have just reached 60 and have been in aviation for 38 years. If you had asked me when I started if I would be happy to retire at age 60 I would have laughed at your silly question. However, things have changed beyond anything I could have imagined: poor rostering to sqeeze the max out of the min, being treated like a piece of crap by security, especially in the US and UK are but two of the reasons that I am now very happy to say "no more". I will miss flying and my friends badly but it just isn't worth it any more and I feel so sad that the young aviator today will never know the joys that we old farts knew in our heyday. I wish them well and that things will, at the very least, not get any worse.

[GXER]

It's overwhelmingly depressing to read this stuff from people who should be among the most respected professionals in our society. Sadly, the "dumbing down" is happening in many other areas (perhaps most) of human activity.

The simple truth is that regulators will tend to regulate more and more in order to justify and perpetuate their existence. And the blindingly obvious (at least to me) consequence of ever-burgeoning regulation that seeks to prescribe how humans 'must' behave is that those who are regulated will become less able and/or willing to think for themselves.

I'm sure you all see the pattern.

[Springer1]

I too retired early at 59 even with a reduced/frozen pension. Fortunately my cost of living is low.

I don't miss it. For me it was like a light switch turning off. I distinctly remember climbing thru 10K feet one day thinking I no longer enjoy this. Funny thing is I thought I had won the lottery when I was hired...happiest guy in the world.

There is life after the airlines.

[nil desperandum]

Yes, much of the trivia to which we are subjected is tiresome in the extreme, sometimes irritating and sometimes downright insulting (so called "security" being just one). However I still regard it as a privilege to be still doing the job at 62 with hopefully a couple more years to go.

Nil Desperandum Illegitimae Carburundum !!!

(Don't let the Bastards grind you down)

[aboyd]

I am on the ground operations side of commercial aviation and completely agree. "All the fun has gone out of the industry." Totally for safety but over regulation introduces dangers all of it's own. I to am about to retire and although I will miss handling the flights I feel for the younger generation with all they now have to put up with.

Cheers :=

[A and C]

Following the CAA's latest act of stupidity over maintenance programs I have decided to give up talking to them.

I will be writing to my Euro MP and taking on the CAA from the top down rather than the bottom up.

EASA are bad enough without the EASA local office (CAA) making up rules that the rest of europe dont have to observe.

[Avman]

now I just go to work, do the job to the best of my ability, take the salary and go home.

That's exactly me today. I am fortunate that, since last year, I can retire at any time I wish, with a cap set at 65. I'm soldiering on for a few more years (but not to 65!) just for the money and no longer for the love of the work. The organisation I work for is a circus - and the clowns that run it aren't even remotely funny. The only thing that I'm thankful for is that at least I worked 85% of my ATC life in the golden years of aviation.

[1DC]

Sadly, your comments reflect what is happening in most major industries. I have been retired about 8 years and met an old mate yesterday who retired in january.He is overjoyed with retirement and said that in the few years that i have been gone i probably wouldn't recognise the business anymore. Individual decisions are frowned upon you just follow the party line and hope you are keeping your nose clean, learn the politics and try and follow them without getting too depressed. That more or less sums it up.

[demomonkey]

I quote from the Baz Luhrman song 'Everybody's free (to wear sunscreen)'

Accept certain inalienable truths, prices will rise, politicians will philander,
you too will get old, and when you do you’ll fantasize that when you were young
prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.
Respect your elders.

[foff]

hi folks,
sorry to be harsh, but for all those who are complaining, I've got a simple question ?
Do you vote for anti-establishment party ? if yes you're on the right track. If no, you get what you deserve.

[Lone_Ranger]

............if you vote for this so called anti-establishment party and they get in, guess what?

... they just became the establishment

remember, engage brain, then type

[Serenity]

I dont think you need to be in your 50`s or 60`s to see the changes. i agree there is probably more change to see, but in my mid 30`s, thoroughly enjoying my flying career, so far left to go, so much left to do, but i have been involved in aviation since 18 and even i can see the changes for the worse, terms and conditions whittled away, red tape and new legislations over the top.

Makes me wonder where it will all end up in 20 years time and i find myself in your positions, will i just want to escape? I do hope that i will still miss it all when i retire!!

[rubik101]

I began flying at age 20 and have just retired at 58. The first 20 years were great, the next 10 pretty good, the last 8 pretty awful.
Flying to the maximum allowable duty, frequent minimum rest, incessant pressure on quick turn arounds, constant squeezing on fuel reserves with the published league tables, the unending and demeaning passage through so-called 'security', the lack of choice for MY leave, allocated with no discernible logic, the annual alteration (reduction) to the 'five year plan', the reduction in salary due to unforeseen circumstances, the incessant and shrill notices in the pigeon holes on a daily basis, the constant sniping from the 'management' to do more for less, led me to resign last year and leave it all behind in Feb this year.
Do I miss the flying? Yes
Do I miss the colleagues? Yes
Do I miss much else? No
I was lucky in that I had a pension in the UK taken when I was 55.
If I took the same pension now, it would be worth about one tenth of the value in 2005. Annuity rates being now less than 1%
I was advised by financial experts that I was stupid to take it then and should have left it until I actually retired at 60.
Don't listen to the experts, they know eff all.
Sad to say, it ain't what it used to be!
You might be surprised to know that you can happily live very comfortably on £500 a month in the Land of Smiles, among many other countries where the inmates don't run the asylum.
Here no-one runs the place!
It is not without irony that an advert for a change of career to become a plumber appears at the top of the page on PPrune!

[Sharpie]

Yes. Been there done all that but luckily for 37 years in a country where stick nd rudder skills outweighed the BS. Did 5 years in management afterwards get into the full retirement mood and living in RP where $us1000 is just enought to live relatively pleasantly with no mortage or other payments.

I did try 'the land of smiles' or shall we say 'The Land Of Promises',. for 6 odd months recently and found that monthly costs to be us$1000 month living in 1 br rented apartment in RCA Bangkok + daily taxi, power, water, telephone and very little socialising. Pray tell me how you do it on $500/month in case I return for a second bite.

Maybe if you rented a bedsitter for say bt3000 mo, eat in sidewalk stalls, buy Leo at the supermarket, catch the trains to and from, lived like a casterway, your monthly costs could be kept down to around $500. But is life really living at that level or are you existing?

With the demos closing the airports last year, and now the ASEAN summit total loss of face, what did you say about the inmates not being in control?
:ugh:

[barrett1987]

he said 500pounds, as in englisd sterling. 500 quid = 1200 dollars

[Golf Charlie Charlie]

500 pounds today is only about 730 dollars.

[flash8]

wouldn't a pound/baht conversion be more accurate!
anyway thread drift...

[virgo]

I've been in aviation for over fifty years, flying for forty and am still on the fringe of the industry. Most of what has been previously said is absolutely true and few people who've been involved in any aspect of aviation for the last twenty-odd years think it's more ENJOYABLE than it used to be. (Though it's probably more productive, reliable and safer?)

But WE are the people who allowed it happen and in many ways, encouraged it to change. In my final days before retirement I can recall many instances of problems arising with the operation either at base or down route and the the regular response from captains, engineers, cabin crew, air trafficers and operations officers, was, "There was nothing in the book to cover this situation - Why not ?"
And instead of telling the chap to pull his finger out and remind him that solving problems was what he was paid for, the "Management" would have dozens of meetings embracing every department within the airline - including HR, Legal, the Union and inevitably 'ealth an'bleeding safety and draw up some tedious new Order and Notice which effectively took the responsibility away from the people in the front line................and we all accepted that this was a good thing ?
We used to have generous rest periods between trips, but WE allowed those who wanted more money, to sell their days-off for a pay rise.
Most companies were prepared to turn a blind eye to crews taking off unused food and opened booze that would otherwise be thrown away but WE didn't stop the greedy minority who half emptied the bars and hoovered up the next sector's Beef-Wellington.
And the list goes on and on. I know the world has changed but we COULD have slowed the changes to our own Industry if we'd put our minds and efforts to it...............Too late now, it may be more efficient but not nearly as much fun.

[Stan Woolley]

Rubik

I apologise.

I assumed (usually a mistake) from your high hours that you had been forced to retire because of age. Clearly not the case.

If I thought for a minute we could all fight and occasionally win I'd be there but my past experience in that direction left a sour taste.

Enjoy your retirement.

[pilotbear]

'Due to the current economic and social climate, the light at the end of the tunnel has been switched off':E

[rubik101]

Stan apology accepted. I mention the figure of £500 a month only for living expenses. I am fortunate in that I have paid for the house I am living in, with the hard earned salary from my flying days. I am also fortunate that this figure will increase this month now that GB and AD stop taking their usurious 40% cut.
Not strictly on thread but there are cheaper places to live if you get to this age and can leave UK. All the surrounding countries to Thailand to name a few!
If I was offered the chance to go back to flying in Europe on £5000 a month, no thanks, I am happy enough here.
I'd post a picture of the pool with me in it if I knew what a URL was!

[Sharpie]

500 quid, not $500. Haaaaaa as the old saying goes, when all else fails, re-read the blooooo Question.

Yes 500 quid about bt25,500 and a tidy sum to live on more so when outside of Bkk. Will have to buy you a beer when I'm next in the Londoner.

Cheers.:O

[rubik101]

Sharpie, you may already have bought me a beer! I used to fly through Goose Bay and Gander quite frequently for a few years back in the 80s and would often meet Flying Tiger crews and share a few cold ones.
We should start a thread on the Most Evocative Airline Names; Flying Tigers would be up there near the top along with British Eagle Airlines.

[mary meagher]

makes me really sad to read how unhappy all you elderly bus drivers are with the parlous state of your profession these days. No glamour any more, very little excitement (unless you are really unlucky), bean counters and bureaucrats rule. And you can't have guests in the cockpit, that used to be the highlight for this SLF in the old days. I'll never forget sitting in the jumpseat of a 747 on approach into the short short X-wind runway into Philadelphia International, wondering how on earth we would get down into THAT! And my dear departed husband's biggest thrill of his life was sitting behind a kind lady captain on night approach into LHR. Those days are gone forever.

But some of us still love to fly. Nobody pays us. We carry on flying into our crumbling old age, and we keep out of your way and suffer the minumum interference from the regulators. One famous chap, a noted guru, is still competition flying in his 80's. While all you retired overweight airline chaps are sitting around in your deck chairs, we are using the elements to stay airborne, and if we get it wrong, we visit a farmer.

You ought to try it sometime. There is life after being a professional pilot.

Do I have to be specific?

[Jox]

Mary,

I fear that you do! We were all flying privately once, we know what it's like to fly for fun as we all did it.

There is limited responsibility in flying on your own for your personal enjoyment, there are however, significant responsibilities for any aviator to safely piloting any aircraft back to the ground and I would never infer or try to lessen those as they are the same for any individual who takes an aircraft into flight.

We personally chose to take ourselves to the next level and have lost none of the passion for the art of flying. Your comparison is a little likened to those who drive to work in the morning in their own car and those who have the responsibilty of transporting 53 passsengers on board a bus between cities as a professional driver. Driving may be considered similar to flying, different people do it to different levels. Some as amateurs and some as professionals.

I have been flying professionally for over 20 years. I have the same love for it as I have always had, I do not love the regulators and the things that have changed. Some of the youngsters that I fly with are still in their early years and do not see the way the industry is changing around us as they are still in awe and in love with everything that they are learning and doing. We have all been there and have seen through what has changed as life and experience teaches us these things.

Please, I beg of you, do not place yourself in a position off-side of those professionals who have reached the days of retirement, their experience as professionals with company regulation, changes in operations and administration are a fact of our industry and try the patience of most.

We have significant responsiblity which weighs heavy on our shoulders, we do not treat it lightly, I do not wish to argue with you and respect your view but find your comments to be a little unwelcome and unwarranted given your level which insinuate that you have never assumed the responsibilities at the level that we do several times a day to ensure the safety of the general public.

Those who have retired are rarely overweight or sitting on deck chairs, most commonly they are found trying to give something back to an occupation that they have enjoyed immensely through any number of unpaid programmes to provide an avenue for their experience being communicated to others who need to learn.

I have never found a need to visit a farmer, neither do I wish to experience such a thing, particularly with a commercial airliner, perhaps this is the difference between us.

I fly professionally and socially, to the same standard as that is what my training and experience has taught me, please try not to attract the displeasure of those who operate professionally, I do not offer a commentary of those who spend their time gliding, we are what the industry has made us, to do so is human.

I would regret it if your comments attract adverse comments but would reiterate that without any experience of those things that elder statesmen of the industry have lived with, I believe you are not in a postion to offer a balanced view.

Jox :=

[PJ2]

Jox - beautifully said, thanks on behalf of this retiree and 40-year professional pilot. Mary, nicely said as well - I think I sense what you're driving at: the love of flying in all it's iterations. Believe me, I don't know a retiree who isn't still in love with flying. What's behind the thoughts being expressed here have nothing to do with flying an airplane. If I might be so bold, I wrote an extended note on this on another thread - here's the link to the post (http://www.pprune.org/rumours-news/363645-turkish-airliner-crashes-schiphol-115.html#post4854880). Also, I think Captain Sullenberger best expressed what's eating the profession when he spoke before Congress (http://www.cspan.org/Watch/watch.aspx?MediaId=HP-A-15779) (the C-SPAN video of his speech says it will be back online after maintenance) a while back. The links should be on that other thread I referred you to.

Let me assure you that retirees aren't sitting in deckchairs waiting for the grim reaper - most I know are as active as ever, giving back as Jox says, or volunteering, or travelling, or consulting as I am, or...? And most of us live well into our eighties, healthy. I was out at the airport this morning photographing takeoffs in the rain and fog...

Flying and the airline career was extremely good to me and my family. None of the observations I and others make about what has happened to this industry in the name of profit-at-any-cost and degrading employees as liabilities instead of the assets that they are, will take away the years of friendship, joy and reward that flying for a major carrier provided.

PJ2

[Wiley]

Jox, I think you missed one (perhaps the most important) point Mary was making in her comment about sometimes ending up in a farmer's field - she's talking about REAL flying - gliding.

[rubik101]

Mary! I'm just 84kg, same as the the last twenty years, luckily!
My wing of choice at the moment is a paraglider, mainly becuase the strip is about 5km from here and the school is run by an Englishman.
Buzzing the beach at 50' is a throwback to a time I can hardly remember!
Times have changed and I know what you mean about the flight deck visits etc. It really was different then.
Now it's just a job, much like most others, the only difference is that the view from the office can't be bought for love nor money. No matter how crap the conditions on the ground, (weather and the company), that moment of breaking through the tops just can't be taken away from us.

100th floor of the Empire State, pahhh, that's nothing! Who wants to spend the whole day at 1200'?

[mary meagher]

Dear Jox -

I'm very sorry that my comments about retired overweight airline chaps sitting around in deck chairs has upset you . . . I have the utmost respect for the professional pilot who must ensure safe arrival of the multitudes on board.

Be advised that although I usually have only one (1) passenger or student with me, I feel the same deep responsibility for his or her welfare and survival that you do for the many paying passengers behind you. I take very very seriously my duty of care, just as you have done for all those years.

But now that you are ready to retire, by my standards you are still a handsome young fellow with a lot of potential, and time on your hands. I'm sure you are not too heavy for my aircraft (seat limit with parachute 242 pounds). Would you like to have a winch launch with me? I'll try not to visit a farmer.

That's what I was on about, as PJ2, Wiley and Rubic 101 understood. The exhilaration of finding an 8 knot thermal when you really need one, the challenge of flying a 300 k task on a dodgy day, the climb to 20,000 over Scotland with 3 seas in view......you get no money, but there's a lot of satisfaction. Interested, chaps?

[ExSp33db1rd]

I'm 74. I retired at 60 determined never to touch another aeroplane,but that lasted about 2 years. I still maintin a CPL - or did, see below - and fly a C.182 as a Coastguard SAR volunteer pilot and instruct on microlights.

A week ago my licence was pulled on the evidence of an ECG for my CPL renewal, it may ultimately prove to have saved my life but is still a blow and I now await further examination.

Meanwhile - I can still fly microlights with a licensed pilot, and this evening had a session with a guy upgrading his licence. After his flying lesson I took over from the right hand side. The weather was cavok, the w/v dead calm, it was about 30 mins before official night. The sun had just set and as I climbed away it rose again, I completed a circuit and heard the tyres squeak. As I climbed away the second time we got another sunrise and I totally unnecessarily decided to follow the VASI's down to a deeper than necessary touchdown- just because I could - to another squeaky clean landing. Magic. I'd do it all over again - less the a***holes of hotel reception clerks !!

Enjoy.

[Xeque]

Rubik:
Are you para-gliding out of Eastern??
And like you, with the house and car bought and paid for, some additional expense for a daughter at university for a couple of years more, we get along on 500 quid a month very nicely thankyou despite the drop in the exchange rate since the b(w)ankers got it so badly wrong.

[funfly]

One thing that rarely gets mentioned is that commercial pilots (of whom I am not one, being merely GA) do not have the same educational support of other professionals - i.e. doctors etc. although they are in a situation where lives are based on their skills, many have had to finance all of their training themselves. How many people in the cabin realise that the guy up the pointed end has had to find maybe up to £45,000 himself to get where he is. (Correct me if my figures are wrong)
Why can't flying be considered a university course together with all the support that entails? after all doctors can earn up to £150,000 a year and the state pays for them to qualify.

[rubik101]

Xeque, I am in Bangsean. My house is a five minute drive from Eastern. Luckily, I have no children that require my support! Once Songkran is over I will be there again. I will pm you when I plan to go again. Where are you?

[TAP]

So what price would you pay to loll around beaches with cabin crew and sleep at work!?

[fireflybob]

So what price would you pay to loll around beaches with cabin crew and sleep at work!?

TAP, not too sure what you are getting at but I hope it's tongue in cheek if you are implying that this is the lifestyle of airline pilots. Nothing could be further from the truth for 99% of pilots.

[TAP]

It was tongue in cheek! :ok:

[Lear Jockey]

This is exactly why I prefer to work in corporate business aviation....still comply with the rules but that's still is a real job where you "touch" airplanes every day, if you see what i mean boys!

In any case, please, see your job as the most rewarding in the World, we are lucky to fly these days...

cheers

[Sir Niall Dementia]

Lear Jockey;

Like you I got out of the airlines for corporate aviation. Now its' all catching up with me. I'm 46, a management pilot flying FW and rotary and spend most of my time tied up in "quality" audits, CAA b******s and covering everyone else's a***. I still love late evenings, positioning back to base at the end of a long day, watching the sunset and then letting down to a dark airfield. I am still amazed at why the machines fly, I still gaze in awe at some of the mmost magnificent views which earth bound people will never see. I just wish CAA/EASA/HSE/ICAO and airport security would just f*** off and let me get on with being an aviator!

I own a little puddlejumper and in that aeroplane I have re-discovered so much of the joy of flight, an evening pottering around the local area followed by a beer in the flying club, or an early morning wake up doing aeros reminds me of why at 17 I did my PPL and started on this road.

Will I miss it when the end comes? Yes lots of it, but if my ECG goes wrong next month I won't fret too much. And I certainly won't miss todays task, auditing the paperwork for an up-coming CAA audit!

[noflyzoneFO]

Hello Gentlemen,
I agree with all that has been said - it isn't was it once was. Some of the rewards of not having lost all my memory (despite family, ha ha) is remembering all the fun crews flown with in the past, and fun overnights. Even better was the days before CYA, FOQA, etc. when professional pride and standards kept the vast majority of airplanes from being bent. You have to find the enjoyment in today where you can, bring your best sense of humor to work, you may be the only one doing so. My current fun is just returning last week to captain the DC-9, a relic of the old days - what could be better? In 2009, this classic, flying in the USA, NO RNAV, no FMS, no auto-throttles, a/p not auto-land capable, round dials, every take-off so loud it sets off car alarms for 5 miles around every airport = pure bliss!

[postman23]

hi folks,
sorry to be harsh, but for all those who are complaining, I've got a simple question ?
Do you vote for anti-establishment party ? if yes you're on the right track. If no, you get what you deserve.

@ foff: Sorry to crush your world here buddy but true change comes from revolution and revolution only. Voting is like advertisments and security lines, something to keep the crowd busy.

[manrow]

postman23

We don't need revolution for change, or at least if we do then I want out!

[Sir Niall Dementia]

Coming back to my earlier post, in the early days of my career I used to despair of balding old farts with their reading glasses on the ends of their noses bitching about pay, rosters, the company and the world in general, but I loved their humour.
Now my hair is going fast, reading glasses are essential and I have the same complaints. I only hope I can make the job as much fun for the young guys and girls I work with now as the old farts did when I was a youngster and they were guiding me between the bear traps, enlisting my aid in smuggling a goose into a hostie's room, teaching me how to fill in my allowances, persuading the entire CC of a KLM flight into dancing in a hotel fountain and turning out all the lights so I could experience the wonders of the Aurora Borealis for the first time, and giving me a nudge so I could enjoy sunrise over the Atlas Mountains.
They all used to tell me I'd be like them one day, I hope I am.

[aguadalte]

Someone said one day: "The day you find a profession you love, you will never have to work again".
That's how I feel...I never go to work, I fly!







(I'm tired of being on this layover...but, tomorrow I'm flying home).:ok:
Fly Safe and have fun.;)