Walter
I am disappointed by your diatribe against Sqn Ldr Burke. Much of his evidence to the HoL and HoC inquiries was correcting MoD's errors / omissions / deceit on the subjects you mention. For example, Day's assertion that it was poor airmanship to turn "belly up" to an obstacle when turning away from it. And Reid's incorrect assertion about the function of the rudder pedal and, in particular, a senior RAF officer's failure to correct him even though sat beside him. This failure was repeated when Reid misled the Committee on numerous aspects of the FADEC used in HC Mk2.
Probably worst of all, Reid claimed Boscombe had never stated the aircraft was unsafe when, in fact, there exists a raft of correspondence from Boscombe stating precisely that; the most obvious being the firm and unequivocal statement that the aircraft should not be released for Service flying.
It would seem Sqn Ldr Burke had to spend much of his time revealing MoD's lies for what they were. In my book, he is indeed a star. Whereas my contempt for the Stars who briefed Reid and perpetuated these lies knows no bounds.