Originally Posted by
Bigpants
OK here is my confession, as a reluctant creamie QFI on the Hawk in 1982 I am willing to admit I was an awful instructor but this was an era when the RAF appeared to want steely eyed pilots.
Why? Because the Cold War was real and they, the Russians, never rolled into Germany because there were people on our side who would have nuked them into the stone age. Later on I was part of that role.
Why were RAF QFIs hard? Because the pace of training and the demands of flying and operating current 1982 fast jets was very high.
The 1 TWU steely eyed QFI (QWI)?? at Brawdy on the Fighter pilot series summed this ethos up very succintly....
"Nobody wants to go to war with a w@nker on your wing".
I know I certainly wouldn't have wanted to.