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24the captain said I could unstrap and sit on the step between the pilots so I could see what was happening. In those days the Victor was a highlevel bomber. We flew around for a bit and then the captain said that that we would see what it was like to fly in line astern to another Victor as they were going to convert the Victors to tankers. This we did and so I saw one of the first trials of Victor to Victor inflight refuelling even though we had no probe and the other aircraft no drogue. Eventually it came time to go home, and they set up to land. We were on fairly short finals when the captain remembered that I was still sitting on the step. Hang on he said when we stream the brake parachute. I did but it was still a huge jolt sending me flying forward.When we came back at the end of our summer leave, we had to settle down to a year of academics. This was miserable with lots of English but also Thermodynamics and Electronics. The only lessons we enjoyed were war studies given by the Army, Navy and RAF proper officers. We also had a USAF officer who usually just showed us war films. He was killed in Vietnam a little after leaving us. All other subjects were taught by RAF education officers who found it difficult to discipline us. There were 2 sites, and you had to go between them by bus. It was very easy to say that we had all missed the bus and were waiting for another one. Then after a bit you would say that the next lesson was where we were waiting, and it didn%u2019t make sense to go there and back for just half an hour. Obviously, we had to know which teachers we could do this to with success. One of the subjects was computer studies. There was a huge computer in its own room that apparently could tell you when Easter would be in years ahead. The lessons were on teaching us Algol which was mind blowingly boring. Also, who cared about computers anyway! It was not long before we realised that not all of us had to turn up. The Wing Commander teaching us was not all that good and so if he asked where half the course was, he would be fobbed off with some excuse, extra drill, sport or something. Consequently, we had a rota as