Wasn't ex-SFC Stirrup an ex-Apprentoid and member of 97 B? The entry with the lemon-and-corkscrew 'bitter and twisted' entry tie? Not a nice bunch generally, but Jock was one of the better guys, it has to be said.
The most deplorable thing about the whole UAS dumbing-down was that the outcome of the so-called 'UAS survey' had been decided beforehand. But at least one Gp Capt of high moral values resigned in protest - a very nice chap and utterly stitched up by a system he'd naiively trusted and believed in.
It wasn't all that long ago that the RAF had an efficient flying training system second to none. UAS, BFT for all (not that FJ prima donna nonsense known as 'BJFT'), AFT, TWU and OCU. Now look at it - an utter disaster with clapped out old aeroplanes, increasing numbers of elderly civvie instructors and the appalling prospect of 'we can't afford it' MFTS looming on the near horizon.....
When did it begin this death spiral? Roughly 1992, as far as I can work out. May those responsible forever boil in hell in a vat of their own excrement.
Still, NetJets are snapping up those few people who might otherwise have joined the RAF as pilots. Hardly surpising really.....