Delighted to hear that John (still 'sir' to me...) is thriving, and that he has the prospect of 2/3 of his time in Aotearoa to get over the exigencies of life in Lincolnshire. He was certainly highly regarded, and respected, by my coursemates and me - you knew you'd been put through the wringer when he conducted a test, but he pitched it exactly right and provided enormous encouragement to me as an underconfident ex-squaddie. Yes, I did encounter one or 2 interesting QFIs (I heard from fellow students about ex-Herc and ex-Victor tanker instructors and their odd little ways) on 1 Sqn - but I was fortunate enough to be shepherded through the course by some excellent A2s. Oh, and JC was absolutely right about David H-R - a real character who was admired in the Puma world; could've gone far but chose not to.
As an aside, in those days of "confidential" reporting we never got to see what actually went into our 5000s. Ten years after finishing at 1 FTS I found myself on loan to the AAC as QHI on an independent Squadron in Cambridgeshire; in the Army, there was no secrecy with their system, everyone had the right to access their records. As custodian of the 5000s for the unit, I spent a while having a look through my own records - fascinating
. Some real stitch-up reports after flights where, for example, the debrief had been conducted between unstrapping from the Wessex and arriving back in the hangar(!). However, when I went back as far as 1 FTS I learned just how much effort had been put in by the training staff on my behalf. I discovered how much I owed to the previously-mentioned JG as well as messrs SC and DH-E; still grateful
