I did my first AR5 course (for the F-4) in Jan 1982. By then the Vulcan was being retired, although the South Atlantic War a few months later provided a stay of execution.
But there was no point in modifying the Vulcan to be AR5 compatible, so Vulcan crews never suffered the joys of the whistling handbag....
I did another AR5 course (for the VC10K) in Sep 1990 when recalled from UAS child abuse for the first Gulf war....
Then another VC10K AR5 course in 1993 when I returned to the AAR world after completing my UAS tour when released after GW1. By then I was reasonably familiar with the wretched thing.
The worst part was 'donning and doffing', which was invariably close-paced during training. If you had time to don the wretched device, then sit quietly for 5-10 minutes, it wasn't too bad after you'd cooled down and got your breath back. But 'they' never gave us the opportunity to do that....
