Hi Stuart, have you enough information. I have written extensively about my time in the RAF which include officer training, pilot training and related stuff. I can put some more info on here but if you wish, you could email me directly. I can send my email address as a PM I believe.
As a civilian, joining the RAF as a pilot meant a completely new wardrobe. Obviously there were the uniforms and on top of that you needed flying equipment. In Jan/Feb 1973 I was issued with all I needed to ‘slip the surly bonds of earth’. So flying suits, socks, boots, long johns, vests, polo neck tops, leather flying gloves, flying scarf( not like in the comedy sketches in white silk and starched within an inch of it’s life but a scrawny green thing) and a bone dome. The flying helmet (bone dome) was a fibre glass shell with a leather inner suspended in a cradle type arrangement. My flying helmet when issued was a 2A and it stayed with me until 1989 some 18 months before I left the RAF when I dropped it and cracked the outer shell. It went from a 2A to a 2B, then a 3A,3B and a 3C before it was damaged. Perhaps it was a little bit like Trigger’s broom but the shell was the same one throughout although the inner leather was changed many times. Leather and sweat aren’t a great combination. Because I am tall I couldn’t fit into a Chipmunk aircraft wearing a bone dome so I wore a cotton inner from a Mk 1 flying helmet which was less bulky. Attached to the helmet was the oxygen mask which fitted below your eyes, over your nose and onto your chin. We wore a mask even when it wasn’t needed for oxygen as the microphone was fitted at the same level as your mouth. Many people suffered from rashes around the mouth caused by rubber particles embedded in the pores of the skin
Then there was the haircut. Imagine a Cavalier soldier of the 17th century and I had hair just below my shoulders which formed naturally into long ringlets and sat on my shoulders. I suffered abuse from many women who would complain about how much they had to spend at the hairdressers to achieve a style that, for me, was natural. So it was quite a shock to have a military style haircut when I joined the RAF.
As you progressed through training there were additions to this basic flying kit and by the time I was flying the Jaguar I weighed, with full kit, 3 stone(20 kgs) more than my actual weight. Like all things you became accustomed to it.
There was also Aviation Medical training at RAF North Luffenham in Rutland and combat survival courses to attend at RAF Mount Batten in Plymouth, Devon. The drive from Mount Batten to Lossiemouth was 667 miles and was typical of the attitude at the time. That course has always been held at Mount Batten and we’re not going to change now. It wasn’t just a long way from Lossiemouth it was a long way from everywhere.