Dora - 9,
Although always a civilian pilot, I had the good fortune to do my initial flying training at a club where ALL the instructors were recently ex-RAF, some from as far back as the early 1930s. RAF Pilots Notes, Training Manuals, Met Books etc., all had an MoD reference number.
About the only "civilian" paperwork was a license application form.
No "home cooked" "rules".
These chaps had all survived years of Germans and/or Japanese trying to shoot them out of the sky, peacetime civilian public service bulldust got very very short shrift.
Tootle pip!!