SORF courses at RAF Leeming often included enthusiastic wheels returning to flying after a spell of chair-polishing. Normal courtesies were of course observed, but the QFI:student relationship remained as normal.
Usually.
Normally one offered a pre-debrief cuppa to one's QFI after a trip; however, one QFI decided that it would be more fitting if
he offered his rather senior student a cup of tea one Monday morning.
Scrabbling around in the bowels of the fridge, he discovered that the milk was off, so turned to his 'student' and asked "Would you like coffee mate?".
The trip hadn't gone that well and the 'student' wasn't in the best of moods, so he responded "Now look, young man, there's such a thing as taking informality too far...."
"Sorry, SIR. I should have said that the milk is off, SIR, so would you like Coffee-mate in your tea, SIR?"
History does not record what the 'student' said next....
