normal_nigel,
Neither,
I held a CPL/IR at the age of twenty and was flashing round in a Vickers Viscount, probably before you were a twinkle in your mummy's eye. In fact I flew the Viscounts at Cosford and Duxford before I could drive a motor car.
Incidentally, I was the youngest on the crew as the cabin crew had to over twenty-one and single in those days.
Never fancied the RAF as the pay was cr*p, the hours too long and the hosties downright ugly.
MP
PS I don't have a rich Mummy and Daddy but got sponsored by Cambrian Airways plus a top-up from some damages from a car accident when I was on my push-bike.
PPS I also worked as a road-man when the money got short.