Originally Posted by
Paying Guest
Not quite. The last flight cadet entry (101) graduated in Feb 73, by which time the Graduate Entry Scheme (GES) was in full flow with the first (1GE) having graduated in Aug 71. Also, there were women on the GES from the start.
No female pilots though.
By 1978 the DE BFT/AFT/TWU pilot training system I went through was as follows: April to Aug '78 IOT RAF Henlow; Sept '78 1FTS Linton, 4 weeks GS, 134 hrs JP3A till July '79, then 64 hrs JP5A til Sep '79; 4FTS Valley Oct '79 to May '80 with 98 hrs Hawk T1; 1 TWU at Brawdy from May to Sep '80 with 71 hrs Hawk T1, then to Phantom OCU in Nov '80. So, total of about 20 months and 367 hrs jet time (including lots of non-course gash trips) from start of IOT to hitting the OCU.