Dont know relevant this is to the current discussion, probably not very, but to someone who has been out of the game as long as I have, it is staggering to read what has happened to the RAF in recent years.
When I went through nav school in 1969-70, I recall it as a time of intense activity, a year crammed with flying, classroom work and survival training etc, with little time to draw breath. I remember that at the end of basic nav training at Gaydon we had a wash up where were asked for suggestions which might help improve the course. I suggested that perhaps one afternoon a month might be left free so that we could carry out routine admin tasks such as going to SHQ, visiting stores to exchange kit and that sort of thing. The DS were shocked by the suggestion and I was told in no uncertain terms that there was no chance of fitting such a period into an already crowded training programme. It now seems that far from an afternoon a month to do a bit of admin, some of these poor sods are getting so little flying they could be given a month off and told to go away and find something useful to do. Heartbreaking.