The existence of position 2 and 3 for the SFH were not known about and neither was the possibility of initiating an ejection with anything other than a vertical pull.
Maybe not known about at the time. As I stated earlier in this thread, this was shown to my course in 1986 by the GS Sergeant instructor, on the seat in the classroom. I clearly remember the demo of the sear pulling out and used to check on every occasion. I subsequently flew Tornado and then Hawk again as an instructor and continued to check. Somewhere along the line the corporate knowledge was lost.
Maybe that ground school lesson wasn't structured and this potential glitch wasn't on a syllabus, maybe it was just that particular tech instructor, and when he moved on his successor didn't know, or failed to teach it. I suppose it's incumbent on those in instructional roles to ensure that lessons are properly structured and that hopefully such potential mistakes are not forgotten, as seems to have been the case here.
Bob Viking:
You may well have been a previous FJ pilot and you may have achieved thousands of hours in them but you weren't a Red Arrows pilot in 2011.
I'm not sure what your argument is. It doesn't matter what role you operate an aircraft in, in this case the Hawk, you could be Red 1-10 or a Unit Test Pilot, the equipment is the same. I hope you're not saying that the RAFAT cannot learn from anyone else other than the RAFAT, or that once you hang up your g-suit, your experience no longer counts?