Ansett's G McMahon was President of Essendon.

Yeah, but that was after the war when he was given the ass at Ansett :D

Staying at the Crest Hotel one night, and after a steak and a beer our crew on the way back found a extremely dead magpie in the gutter, knowing one Capt. John Hickey was safely tucked up in bed, and knowing he always left his shoes out to be cleaned (you used to be able to do that without them being nicked then) we stuffed the deceased bird into his shoe (the maggies were having a horror season) and happily hit the cot. 0600 and the banging on my door was hard to ignore, and there stood(in his PJ,s) one extremely irate JH, naturally I denied everything, and suggested he contact one of the Flight Engineers, for further info (as you do). Do you think he would let it go, no, every crew room had signs posted for weeks calling for our scalps, so of course the inevitable happened, he turned up for a flight and there in his seat was, a, you guessed it, a dead magpie all carefully tied up in his harness, the F/O reckoned he was a hospital case (us northerners did not realise how serious AFL really was until then). :E

Just remember TG those lovely young air hostie's that you guys ogled are now doting grandmothers!!!

I know Stationair, I am married to one, and I am as far down the food chain as you can get!:(

The two Melbourne gatherings, Monday and Tuesday (yesterday), were well attended, especially yesterday's. Much fine fellowship, sustained chewing of the fat and frequent gales of laughter. Some of the more senior brigade trotted along, recounting many a yarn of wonderful folks in a wonderful era. Rancour, axe grinding - nil.

I can't speak to yesterday's gathering - on the Monday it was great to catch up with a number of faces not seen for many years.

Not only was there no axe grinding but some comments evoking sadness, even empathy, for those who had taken a shorter term view of life 20 years ago.

Of particular interest to me was seeing just how well some of the more senior folk have aged so well - enough to put good wine to shame - chaps such as Brian G looked not to have aged a day in their appearance over the years.

Most of us, however, showed the usual expanding waistlines associated with an emphasis on the better aspects of life.

Can someone tell me why Greybeards thread a couple of days ago, on the same subject, was scrubbed by Tidbinbila, probably 'cause he obviously didn't like it?...

yet this one he apparently does like!...

perhaps even Tidbinbila himself might like to tell us?

Maybe your tone's the thing that's a bit off. That thread was closed after four posts. None of them broached a serious subject - awards vs individual contracts - with anything like a clearly stated argument. The only quotable line was -

"It's very hard to invert the first letter in ME."

Stick it on your fridge.

Wiley, I think your comments are fair and valid!! This could explain why I choose to currently work overseas til retirement due to the poor conditions in Oz.
As another colleague said to me when i asked "do you think you'll ever return to fly in Oz?"

"They couldn't afford me" was his reply.

b.

Of course he would say that, as he'd have a snow flakes chance in hell of getting job in Oz, such arrogance, typical of that ilk.:sad:

Ah....and Richard Cranium's response instantly lowers the tone of an otherwise nice thread, (such a response being typical of that ilk)!

Anyhow, sorry I couldn't make it to the gathering, it would have been fun and sounded like a great get-together.

A nice bunch of folks who were part of three great airlines.

Whilst such events typically aren't 'celebrated' as such, perhaps for the 25th we could make it a really big event - a marquis in Albert Park or something?

The problem is not the red wine today but the Kool-Aid we drank years ago

What utter nonesense Wiley,it was JR and Virgin who halved pilots wages in Australia

Someone beat you to it redned. http://www.pprune.org/dg-p-reporting...ars-today.html

See post #3, which I suspect was the reason that thread was binned by the mods.

Its a totally valid point in my view,no one else eroded the existing conditions like Virgin did.That opened the door for all the LCCs who operate today to offer what they like.

I think someone with a less blinkered view might take the turning point a bit further back than that, ned, to the 24th of August 1989, when the union that had won for Australian professional pilots the conditions they enjoyed effectively ceased to exist. (Although it took a while for many of us to recognise that.)

Some might argue that it continued to exist until enough of its members, along with 'blow-ins', mostly (but not only) from abroard, undermined its position by voting with their feet and accepting the individual contracts.

However, I accept that it's useless attempting to debate the issue. Even after 20+ years, it's still too close to the bone for those who stayed out, wghile those who learned all about the duspute from those who returned have a very different view of it.