I was utterly brilliant in my service career. The RAF's training regime must have been outstanding
We must have had the same instructors! I was mainly involved with FJ's as a techy but I can't ever remember thinking that any of the crews were incompetent. A tiny number weren't the greatest people as in any walk but I would never knock their skills.
I've never looked at it that way, that the guys who finished up poleing the Harrier, Lightning et al were the cream of the crop but I suppose they must have been. Well done you lot.