I was holding at Valley in the summer of 1975 having finished my Gnat course when an ex-UAS chum called to let me know that he would be coming down from Lossie with a pair of Jags, the leader of which would be giving a presentation in the OM that evening. So I went to VASF to welcome him - he told me that he'd needed burner to maintain speed round the final turn as he'd been rather tight downwind. Then I watched with interest as it sprayed an impressive plume of fuel from the rear whilst refuelling - this was due to some vent valve which often got stuck. The cure was to get on top of the fuselage, stroll down to the fin and jump up and down. No elf 'n safety back then, but refuelling complete I drove him back to the mess to watch the presentation.
Which was a farce. "DON'T use 'back' on the projector or the slide carrier will fall out - there's some fault", the presenter had been told by the groundschool chap whose projector was to be used. But he didn't listen, so when he did so the slide carrier shot out as briefed, depositing all the slides across the floor. He stuffed them back in any old order, so the presentation was a random sequence of slides, to which he ad-libbed.
Then came the crowning glory - some HUD camera film in full colour of low level flying in the Jag. Which would have been great, but he hadn't told the groundschool chap that the HUD had a Telford camera - so the whole film was 90 deg out! "You'll need to turn your heads, I'm afraid", said the presenter, whilst the groundschool chap muttered "If you'd told me it was Telford film, I'd have brought the converter. Too late now!". Of course the WIWOLs poured a deal of scorn on the presentation - "Is your jet as ****e as your presentation, mate?" was one rather cruel question!
My ex-UAS chum told me that thrust was very unimpressive on take-off - there was no question of the leader throttling back slightly during a pairs take-off, so whoever got airborne first became leader. But that was back in 1975; over the years the Jag got better and better and was a valued asset in both Iraq and Bosnia. In its final GR3A version it was a mighty fine jet, but was sadly killed off by Buff Hoon's defence cuts...