Morning Stuart, on a rainy day in Lincolnshire I will see if I can help.
Russ would have joined straight from school or civvy street and done his Officer Training at RAF Henlow. Graduate entrants were trained at Sleaford Tech (RAF College Cranwell). Basic Flying Training at RAF Linton on Ouse then there was a delay of some months before the course at RAF Valley. We started Spring 1976 and Russ did AFT on the Folland Gnat then a short familiarisation on the Hawker Hunter. Then 4/5 months off and a quick refresher on the Hunter and off to Tactical Weapons Unit (TWU) at RAF Brawdy. We knew how to fly an aircraft but now had to use it as a weapons platform. Air to air gunnery, air to ground gunnery, bombing and firing rockets were some of the disciplines and flying battle formation became normality.(Your most vulnerable direction was directly behind you so if you flew 2 aircraft, line abreast, about a mile apart you could protect each other’s 6 o’ clock). The final few sorties were as part of a 4-ship attacking 2 simulated targets in Wales with another Hunter acting as a hostile fighter. You had to get to the target and have cine film of the attack to ensure success, maintain formation and counter all attacks from the ‘bounce’ aircraft. You started looking for the enemy fighter as you taxied out to the runway as formations had been bounced as they were getting airborne. So think ‘Topgun’ without Tom Cruise. TWU completed approx June 77. I had been ill so was behind the rest of the course and Russ went on the course ahead of me RAF Lossiemouth.
I was awarded my wings in October 75 and think Russ would have been a similar time.
If there was a delay between courses we were encouraged to find a useful alternative so RAF Shawbury might have been a secondment for Russ.
The summer of 76 is the stuff of legends and the weather was so good we did lots of flying in a short time.
Sending some photos of the literature that probably attracted Russ to join.