30%+ failure rate for RAAF pilots course. If you don’t make the grade you don’t pass.
Well, back in the late 60s there was an applicant whose father was VERY high up in the French embassy system, and we were using Mirages, so this lad was accepted onto pilot course.
At 1FTS he was seen to be pretty tragic, but the hierarchy said they didn't want the wrath to descend on them, so they said to pass him on to 2FTS and let them scrub him. At 2FTS, they thought "Holy cats, this guy is tragic, but he got through 1FTS, so let's pass him and send him to choppers where he will be under supervision". At 5 Sqn he was seen as a complete goose and was sidelined as much as possible. But when he was told to plan a detachment away, he took the planning proforma, which included ROFOR and TAFOR. He went to one of the instructors and asked what it meant. The instructor told him it was oil for the main rotor and oil for the tail rotor, and he would have to go to a hangar far away to collect it. Off he went.
The instructor calls the hangar, tells them to fill a 5-gallon drum and a 1-gallon drum with water and mark them ROFOR and TAFOR. The goose believed it all, and took the drums away, followed by stifled laughter..
He has many stories. Another was looking at the Huey's N1 gauge, and asking "What is that?" He was supposed to be a qualified pilot. The captain said "That tells you the RPM of the tail rotor." He believed it.