Chugalug (your #8198),
... 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!...
In '51, we had a chap on 20 Sqn (name forgotten), ex-QFI on Harvards, whose party trick it was to touch-down in the Station Harvard on the first few inches from the threshold of Valley's 32 and stop abeam the caravan ! (Have put a Vampire down on the old 26 there once myself - but in the teeth of a howling gale).
As you say, the secret of success in the RAF (and in many other professions) is to be born at exactly the right time. Few of us can manage it, unfortunately.
(It's all our parents' fault !).....
Cheers, Danny.