Gas,
A fair series of observations. I'd argue that, if anything, SH Navs (& Crewmen) have done rather better than pilots on recent promotion boards to SO2 - certainly in terms of a percentage. Now whether this is a sympathy thing (ie, little chance of PA for Navs/Crewmen as Flt Lts, so promote them or they're forced out...) or we're in the middle of a "golden age" of special aircrew or, just maybe, they don't have to work as hard at their primary duty as pilots and have more time for career guff ( now running, ducking, covering...!) I don't know. I'd say a mixture of all three. Suffice to say that about 80%, I'd guess, of commissioned SH aircrew are pilots - yet at a secret Hampshire airbase out of 8 available flt cdr slots some 4 are non-pilot (and one of the remaining 4 is an ex-Nav!). Some get disillousioned at the "glass ceiling" against Navs in the higher echelons of the RAF and bang out, others hang in as they haven't got a traditionally transferrable skill to the outside world. Instead they either have to pay a stack of cash for an ATPL (and some have, doing very well at it) or enter the Defence Industry (which seems to be chokka with ex GR1 SO2/SO1 navs!). I'm not sure if we're training any more, but I learnt an awful lot from flying with experienced Navs when I was an LCR mate, gaining valuable captaincy experience, yet having an old head to keep an eye on me!