Glass is half full...

[MTOW]

It all went down the dunny in 89

Agreed, but the chain that started that giant flush down the industrial dunny was pulled in 1982 by the QF pilots who withdrew from the AFAP and formed their own company union.

1989 and all the grief that's followed since was inevitble after that.

The big job now is for someone of the calibre of Dick Holt to rise from the ashes of 1982/89, someone who can drag screaming the many disparate pilot groups together again into one coherent body that will stick together. (I wish it was as easy to achieve those last four words as it is to write them.) It will be a huge undertaking, with many pitfalls and blind alleys along the way, because we ourselves (or a disappointingly large enough number of us) have shown repeatedly that we will run ourselves off our feet to do everything possible to maintain and even widen the fractures that now exist between the many disparate groups.

I wish the new Dick well - I know it will be a job too big for most men. I just hope to God he's out there somewhere - and not too far away - and if he'll be able to achieve anything while even the last few protagonists from the events of 1989 are still actively involved in the industry will be the mark of of how great a man he is.

[Razor]

I remember (well the first bit anyway) putting $500 on the bar at the aero club on a friday night at Cairns for my 5000hrs in late 1999.
think the next morning had me waking up fully clothed in the bede - shoes still on. Missus not impressed. Had a great night from all accounts!

Should be more of it.

The Friday nights at the cadets mess at Point Cook particularly after some solos is a great memory (well I think I was there, or maybe .......I know I had some shocking hangovers)