I was lucky enough, or old enough, to fly the Hunter at both Valley and TWU. It did provide a good grounding for the Mighty Phantom, I would believe much better than the Hawk. Even so, on our Welcome Speach at Coningsby OC 228 told us that the F4 was the most difficult and dangerous aircraft to fly in the RAF. At least one of us "may" have an accident before the end of the course. A great welcome for a Below Average 1st tourist. So it was no surprise that on the second week of flying a crew from my course ejected over Skegness with a Double Utils Failure.
I went on to be lucky enough to fly the Phantom for 2500 hrs in both air-to-air and air-to-ground. Only the F15E and later, the Super Hornet have so far surpassed the Mighty F4.
A friend of mine who is a Hawk child used to tell how great the Hawk is. The BAe propagada must have been good. Then one day, in later life, he went solo in a F6 Hunter. When he landed the smile on his face stretched from coast to coast.
I am led to believe that the Hawk T2 is a good lead in to Typhoon and future aircraft. To my mind it costs a lot of £ for a jet with such poor performance.