Red sauce? Good grief - are there no standards anymore? I've even seen some 'officers' chewing gum.
I used to use the 'spring/damper' analogy. Young thrusters or Flt Cdrs with a nose for their boss's bottom would prance about on springs bouncing from one limit stop to the other. Whereas the wisdom of experienced NCA would dampen the extremes of their behaviour to a sensible level.
A well tuned system results when the spring/damper ratio is correctly identified! Get it wrong, hit resonance and it will diverge to destruction, however.
Not so long ago the NCA would have slightly more spare time than the career-pushing JOs with their Officer I/C Barrack Block 59 secondary duties. Hence several Air Engineers used that time to learn to fly, worked up to CPL/IR and FI rating, then left the mob and went to grateful airlines. So they're now either experienced and knowledgeable airline FOs - or Captains in at least one case. Whereas those same JOs are probably now driving a desk and answering phones or doing something equally exciting
Stoppers - any news about when you and your glider chums will be off to fly the C-17
