The ALPA meeting was over and we were in the coffee shop with a bunch of the retirees that had come to see if they still had a retirement. With all the recent turmoil in the business, many airlines had tried to do away with retirement benefits and some had succeeded. Lucky for us they weren't successful in our case, but it was close.The bad news was they came close to shutting off retirement funds and medical care for the guys least likely to find benefits elsewhere -- pilots who had retired years ago and who really needed the money they thought they could count on in their "golden years." Now that particular ogre had been turned back -- at least for now -- and I got to see about a dozen of my personal heroes: pilots, now retired, for whom I had once flown engineer and later first officer.You just don't know how much you miss people like this until you see them again in a cordial setting.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.avweb.com/features/ceo-of-the-cockpit-36-happier-times