Firstly, Wholigan, can't understand why anyone would want to take hols in Cold Lake, though the rest of Western Canada would be awesome!
The training at NFTC must rate highly among modern courses - it certainly is MODERN and not many countries can offer training on a aircraft with HUD, INU/GPS, HOTAS (albeit limited) and both Colour & Monochrome displays. All this combined with rangeless "ACMI" (similar to RAIDS) for every trip, and a generally unhindered flying area.
The RAF certainly doesn't need another ENJJPTS (sp?), and I think they have probably gone about NFTC with that in mind. The numbers of staff from each nation taking part is one for every 3 students from that country, giving the RAF a total of 7 out of the 18 staff at Cold Lake. The Canadians themselves only have 8, so the RAF is on an almost equal footing there.
Given that all the RAF instructors there have all been QTI/QWI/QFIs (no intention in the order
) at Valley, the RAF's interests should be well looked after.
I hope the OCUs receive the post-NFTC students with open arms and are flexible enough to cope with the inevitable differences that will occur (small enough but maybe significant, probably not all in a negative sense either). After all the OCUs will receive 1/3 of all their students form NFTC over the next 10 yrs - that is what the RAF have signed up for.
With MFTS and a replacement for the ageing T1/1A fleet a way off yet - NFTC seems a good way to bridge the gap. Lets not forget, we are not debating whether or not to sign up to NFTC, we are in it for the next 10 yrs.