So, 6 years ago and and 42 years ago! I got to a squadron at age 22 in 1961, having spent 3 years at Cranditz! The speed of training used to be such that someone doing National Service could get officer and flying training and 6 months on a squadron. If they were selected for this path they had to agree to extent their NS by a year which I guess made it 3 years instead of 2. Standing by for correction of this timescale. One of my colleagues had a 3 month hold for his main OCU and was given a Meteor conversion and a target towing posting to Singapore to fill his time!