There was also the comment “Amazing effects. A Nav co-ordinated enough to play the piano”.

There were 17 of us when 72 Nav Course formed in early January 1965 - the only 'failed pilot' was from the Rhodesian Air Force.

One boisterous evening in the mess bar a student nav sought to dampen the enthusiasm of the ME pilot cadre by calling out ‘tell us what happened at Valley?’ (Many of those on the Jetstream cse had completed the ‘ME lead-in cse’ on the Hawk…). Quick as a flash one of the pilots responded with ‘tell us what happened at Biggin Hill!’

​​​​​​​Not sure if anyone was sober enough to add it to the line book though.

One for ex V-force Navs. Who or when was it decided if you were to become a Nav. Plot or Nav. Rad??

[QUOTE=Ken Scott;11539562]One boisterous evening in the mess bar a student nav sought to dampen the enthusiasm of the ME pilot cadre by calling out ‘tell us what happened at Valley?’ (Many of those on the Jetstream cse had completed the ‘ME lead-in cse’ on the Hawk…). Quick as a flash one of the pilots responded with ‘tell us what happened at Biggin Hill!’

Not sure if anyone was sober enough to add it to the line book though.[/

At one point those who didn’t succeed at Valley went no further as pilots .

​​​​​​​Oberon in my case it was Barnwood or Barndoor as they were better known.

. Think most chopped pilots went to be Air Traffickers.......

My Dad was a WOp/AG in WW2. After the war he applied for pilot training and was turned down as he came from a Newcastle pit village (my Grandad was a miner) and hadn't gone to the right school, which hadn't mattered before the war had been won. He subsequently retrained as a Nav (no streaming or silver spoon necessary) and upon leaving the RAF in 53 went to BOAC. He was made redundant along with all the other Navs in 63.

NEO

At a role disposal conference at the end of (unstreamed) Nav school. Radars like me tended to be the ones who were no good at all the log keeping and chart work. As one instructor said to me “TL, the worst thing the RAF ever did was give you a pencil “

In 66/67 all Vulcan 1st tourist navs were sent for radar training. At about that time one first tourist was selected to be a plotter - K** R***. The experiment was not a success.

First tourist plotters were rare in the 70s but not unheard of. Radars were generally considered the junior member of the nav team. Interestingly it was the other way round in the B52 force whose plotters spoke of “upgrading to radar Nav”.
Anyway, maybe we should be on the nostalgia forum!

I was at Finningley in 1988/9 and concur 2Planks' comment. After the Dominie high level intro, and the low level intro on JP5, my final low level IP to target run was the A74 Lockerbie roundabout, 22 Dec 88, the day after the Lockerbie terrorist tragedy. All flying was scrubbed until after Christmas. I was streamed Gp2 in the New Year but that suited me.

As it happens, I was a "failed pilot". I deliberately use quote marks because one week I was told that I was "a natural" and the next week I was chopped with almost the whole of my EFTS course and the courses behind mine. The wait for JP pilot training was more than 2 years and somebody made the decision to simply stop the pilot intake. I was at Wyton in 2009/10 when the same happened again. Many young lads [as it was in those days, 1987] were totally devastated having their childhood ambitions removed at the stroke of a senior officer's pen. As an ex-ranker, I had hedged my bets at Biggin Hill and put second choice Nav just in case. The Nav courses at Finningley in 1988/89 had a lot of ex-pilot students.

'Nil Drift' we must be almost exact contemporaries at Finningley, as I completed my 'Basic' JP5 Low Level FNT the very afternoon of the Lockerbie bombing. Consequently, I, along with one other member of 362 ANC (Ph*l K*r**n, IIRC) had nearly a month's leave over Christmas and New Year 1988/89 whilst we waited for the rest of the course(s) to complete their remaining sorties.

I remember having to ring the Flt Cdr, V**ce M**, every couple of days in Jan 89 to work out a date to get back for the start of the Advanced Dominie Phase - Gp 1 in my case!!! :8

OJ 72. I've just sent you a PM. :)

That's my recollection...we were there at the same time beardy, I was on JPs 85-87

Appropriately this popped up on my recommended videos this evening

Hannover

I finished 6FTS in 1973. The only streaming that went on was determined by your final position on the course. We were given the available OCU slots, and No.1 had first pick, and so on.
. The Nimrod had two navigators, the more experienced or better qualified designated as 1st Nav. The duties of Tac Nav and Routine Nav were shared - often on the same sortie.

207 Course at 6 FTS in 1975/1976. Twas the last Varsity Course. No streaming but you got a "Low Level Rec" or not in my case at the end of JPs. Thankfully ended up on Nimrods which was my niche in life, before finding another niche in RNZAF Capability.

Joined as a direct entrant Electronic Fitter (Ground Communications) in Feb 74 and just coming up for 50 years in uniform. Not many people thought I would live that long !!!

RAF Tactical Nav training provided by the Fleet Air Arm.
 

Vasco (Post #14) - has identified the apparent absence of RAF 'tactical' nav training between (roughly) 1969 and 1971.
That cheese-hole was temporarily plugged by the Fleet Air Arm and jolly good fun we had doing it.

In the 1960s RN Observer training started on the Sea Prince, followed by about 60 hours 'jet famil' - speeding up on the Sea Venom before going to OFS - Vixen or Buccaneer.

One day a bunch of baby crab navs turned up (from Wings on the Dominie) and for a couple of years worth of 'jet famil' courses, we hurtled them around North Jockistan doing low level navs, shipping strikes, using the radio and radar, looking outside and pulling a bit of G. I like to think they enjoyed it as well as learning something useful. They were good material so perhaps they were streamed.

The down side was that there wasn't enough capacity so our own RN Observer studes had to go straight from the Sea Prince to the Buccaneer and Vixen OFS prima-donna hot-houses.

LFH