The first 'real' people I encountered in the RAF were the groundcrew on my UAS. On the sign-out desk they had a wooden box on which were mounted two model pilots from the very large-scale Spitfire that Airfix used to produce. The right arms were capable of being glued in any position and had been placed rather lower than would be expected for holding a joystick.
Under the pilots it said, in Letraset, '99 Change Hands'.