Being on the cusp of calling it a day on my RAF career, I am still amazed that I can be moved by such a simple thing as this thread. I was lucky enough to fly Chippys at No1 EFTS at RAF Swinderby in 1987. The system was changing from Flying Selection School (we all had the badge!) to EFTS, nobody knew what the hell was going on, so we just carried on flying until told to stop! Great days with the likes of Uncle Dennis Winterbottom (and his Vincent Black Shadow-or was it a Villiers?), Ted Hudson ("only one way to recover a Javelin from a spin, bang the Nav out!"), Pete Frame (APO SFO, if you were in the FAA then fraternising with the Sqn Mini Adj would be OK, but you're not, so please put her down and leave her alone! - best boll@cking I ever had!), Pete Bouch (in the Hurricane..............), Mad Mike Dutton ("Did I ever tell you about the time I was flying Chipmunks in Cyprus when the Turks invaded?"). And finally, Keith Jobling, the first non-pilot aircrew guy I ever met in the RAF (think he was a Nav?), what a gent. Even if it was him that egged me on with the Mini Adj!!
Happy days.
Going to look up tailnumbers when I get home, sad I know.......
