Had a very similar experience when a RAF Phantom pilot and nav QWI team bowled up at Cold Lake for a seminar week.
On day 1 they were briefed for a 2-ship SAP sortie. The briefing also covered all the essential knowledge for flying in the front-seat of the 104. The RAF guys were in shirt-sleeve uniform and went to get changed into their growbags straight after the briefing. When they got back to the auth desk, the Canadian that was flying the nav said "Hell, you a navigator? Well, never mind, get in the front anyway". Said RAF nav proceeded to impress the heck out of the Canadian pilot. This nav had spent a fair bit of time in the 2-stick Phantom and had a reasonable amount of poling time.
For interest, we frequently put pilots of other types in the front seat, as the only thing you couldn't do from the back seat was to operate the switch that turned the nav kit from "align" to "nav".