Mig21SM,
To clarify, what I meant was if a pilot had done part of a 2.5-year (single) / 3-year (married) tour elsewhere in Germany - for instance, when 92 Sqn formed in the AD role at RAF Wildenrath, some crews came from 2 Sqn at RAF Laarbruch when the Phantom FGR2 was replaced in the recce role by the Jaguar - they could get 1000 hours in 3-5 years total during their tour at Wildenrath. I do also remember that HQ RAFG was very concerned about "aircrew experience dilution rates" and would try to get only experienced crews. Initially, many of the pilots either had 1000+ hours in the Lightning or 1000+ hours in the Phantom in the strike/attack/recce roles. During my tour as JEngO, we next had just 2 first tour pilots out of 20 (NATO aircraft:crew ratio was 2:1) and after about 18 months we started to get some pilots from other areas including those whose immediately previous tour had been on the Bulldog or Jet Provost training aircraft. Interestingly, I have discovered on PPRuNe that one of our 1000+ hour ex-Lightning pilots did an exchange with the USAF on U-2 - didn't know that at the time !
Low level - probably 1977. Great machine (in it's day) - great people - great times !
