Danny, timing as to one's service in the RAF is everything, just as it is in life. I was fortunate to be on the first entry to be trained on the JP3/4 and to be posted to Hastings when co-pilots had been elevated from 2nd to 1st pilot status. Unlike Haig-Thomas we were confident in our ability to rise to the occasion if the inhabitant of the LHS, old or otherwise, should become incapacitated. That confidence was built up after the OCU in Squadron monthly continuation training.
No-one had invented CRM back then, but Capt Jack's "F***ing Sow's Ear, Lad!", when one had called "Cut" and stalled her into a perfect three pointer onto the piano-keys for a Tactical Landing, was endorsement enough of one's professional status!