TD&H
Sorry, nothing much more to add really. Like any end of course exam in my experience I knew what I was supposed to do, so just had to get on with it. As ever the Summary, Conclusions and Recommendations were the only part that required burning the midnight oil and polishing and polishing and polishing since those were the bits that mattered and enabled you to show (or not) that you understood what the tp’s job was all about. If you could not plan the trips, execute them and write up the main body of the report by then there was not going to be much hope for you as these were just pages of factual grind such as Weather Time and Place, Tests Carried Out, and Test Results.
Since the only other fighter of the day I had any time on was the Hunter (which in my view was one of the worst handling/more useless modern aircraft that Kingston/Dunsfold foisted on the world) I can remember to this day the surprise I felt as I unstuck on my first takeoff in the Javelin. The thing was instantly rock steady, easy to trim hands off and subsequently stable in roll and pitch on the climb. Now that is what you want to fly in cloud or at night. If you are a Hunter man you will know that none of those Javelin attributes applied to the Hunter - a very pretty aeroplane that everybody got a great kick out of poling round the sky. (Great for an exciting ride but fit for the purpose it was purchased …..you have to be joking)
Mind you a pair of donks in an all weather fighter that suffered from centreline closure rather made a mess of the whole enterprise. (Centre line closure being contraction of the compressor casing when hit by cold moist air so that it grabbed the rotating bits…….)
JF