I was never a pilot in the RAF, although in recent years I have enjoyed a certain amount of stooging around in a Cessna, which gave me a huge amount a pleasure.
But I genuinely loved my time as a nav. I used to sit down the back of a Victor looking at the NBS screen in which you could see your own reflection. I used to think - bloody hell, is that really me - have they really let me be part of operating this amazing machine?
Yes ok, maybe two hours of tanker tanker work over the North Sea, or 45 minutes of circuit bashing could be a bit tedious for those of us down the back, but overall I just loved it.