Easy Street: good points on the whole. However:
"the absence of a go-forward facility on the Tutor's shoulder straps is a minor hindrance to rear-sector lookout; some wizened old UAS QFIs of my acquaintance advocate slightly loosening the shoulder straps once airborne to achieve the same effect."
It is not a minor hindrance - loosening them is against SOP and HASELL checks. The straps are there for a reason and the shoulder straps back up the negative g strap (which is too long at shortest setting for most) during aeros. Other a/c have a a mid torso fixing behind the seat with go-fwd setting. The Tutor has individual fixings for each shoulder meaning no flex to rotate the torso.
"Now, more and more crews are getting a Traffic Service whilst conducting medium-level training - with the general reduction in military traffic, it's usually possible to get a quiet frequency, and the gain in situational awareness is huge."
Tutors operate mostly below 5000 feet due to low climb rate. For EFT work a Traffic Service has proven unworkable due to a shortage of controllers and busy teaching environment. It may work for AEF. Quiet frequencies have been used for decades for teaching but are now under threat as this report suggests - increasing Mental Air Picture by using the radio more often.
Professor Plum: "The view from a Tutor is much better than that of a C150/152 which have aerobatic versions, and generally better than most other SEP aircraft too."
The view sideways and straight ahead is very good in the Tutor. The problem arises when you want to carry out turns steeper than 30 deg AoB or aerobatic pitching manouevres. Previous trainers such as the Chipmunk, Bulldog and Firefly were far better in this respect.
Most Civilian SEP are used for A to B PPL flights not aerobatics. There are very few C150 Aerobats flying cf almost 100 Tutors and for lookout below a Cessna has an advantage. Almost all those Civilian a/c used for aerobatic training have superb Field of view eg: Extra 300, CAP10, Yak52, etc...
Canopy Ejection:
The proceedure is more complicated than described by posters. It does not pop open. Indeed when the canopy is flown in the vent position (speed below 100KIAS) it will tend to move forward and try to close itself unless locked.
The red emergency pull handle does NOT release the canopy - it unlocks it. The larger handle must then be rotated through almost 180 deg. Then the INSIDE arm has to be used to push the canopy frame backwards and upwards. The proceedure takes a good few seconds to complete.
As far as I am aware only one Tutor has lost a canopy airborne - In 2004 a canopy detached due to vibration after a propellor blade detached in flight.
"Since the accident, the base I was at not too long ago (with an EFT sqn and AEF) started regular demonstrations of actually jettisoning the canopy. Not sure if this is a fleet-wide implementation though."
First I have heard of it and sounds very expensive.