Having sat in a single seat Lightning cockpit, could I ask anyone who flew it whether operating the throttles was exceptionally uncomfortable, or was I just not putting my left arm in the correct position?
Quoth the actress to the bishop: "you were doing it wrong!" (I'd guess it was at or beyond full downwards scanner elevation extension).
No, operating the throttles wasn't remotely difficult or uncomfortable - though we could have done with the seat being a bit less upright for the 5hr+ sorties.
Never flew the Phantom, but, compared to the Tornado F2/3 (qualified in both cockpits), the radar hand-controller was an ergonomic marvel - in, admittedly, a total slum of a cockpit - that only gave trouble when someone left the lid open and it got wet, thereby offering the potential to receive a mighty belt from all the trons running through it when you turned the radar on. I was forever mighty careful after having being bitten once.
Not, of course, a patch on all the more modern stuff, but it could be rightly described as 1950's-style HOTAS-ish...