About in-breeding ; a few years ago I visit some Loire Chateaux and in one of them ( Chenonceaux possibly ) there is a room furbished in 1700 style with the King ( Louis XV ?) and his familly + princes, etc, made in wax , Mmme Tusseau style. The interesting thing is that beside being totally ugly and disformed they all were of a maximum height of 1m40 (less than 5 feet)
reason given by the guide : inbreeding.
About check captains ; fully agree about keping them happy on a different subject. Last summer i was having a check ride with a perticlarly stiff JAA FE, when we made an app in one (ATIS) field to find a Military doing an APP against the QFU at the same time.
I decided to vacate the APP and start all over again when my FE , who had only so far spoken in 2 words sentences, started to yell on the R/T at the military offender. I just had to say " bloody military, they always do this here !" to start a very fruitful conversation with him that lasted until we stopped the engine an hour later. The fact that it was the first time that I went to this perticular field did not enter the conversation.