Jamie
When I joined I wanted to fly the Tornado GR1 (as it was then) having made my mind up as a 14 year old after watching Gulf War videos. I later opted for the Jaguar as I progressed through training several years later and was successful in my crusade.
The Hawk is a training aircraft. It is a means to an end. Although 100 Sqn use it in a support role (and other nations have used it in an operational role) it should not be the jet you join the RAF to fly.
Being a Hawk QFI after having gained front line experience is a different kettle of fish.
As much as I loved my tour teaching Tac Wpns on the Hawk T1 (before we formerly started to use the Skymap GPS I might add) I have no desire to fly it again. I much prefer the avionics of the later marks of Hawk. I simply cannot bring myself to fly a jet without a HUD in the year 2021.
Yes, the Hawk offers a great flying experience and is a lot of fun but would you really take that over a Typhoon or an F35?!
All future frontline FJ pilots will spend time on the Hawk as a rite of passage (or maybe even the T38!) and can always come back to it later but it really should not be the aim. You cannot make a career out of flying the Hawk without at least having gained some experience elsewhere either before or after a Hawk tour.
As for which frontline type is the best for pure flying I’m going to butt out of that argument since I haven’t flown any of them.
BV