Tumbleweed.
I concur, I was a geriatric 30 year old when I started my Army Pilots course and by far the oldest candidate. I was Mr Average throughout where some of my classmates were stellar (at times). Flights were rated Blue, Green, Brown or red. Some of the younger guys were nearly always Blue with the odd red thrown in once in a while. My record was 1 Blue and 1 Brown sortie, all the rest solidly in the Green and trust me I was working hard to maintain even that average. Age is a huge factor. I’m now responsible for the training of Train Drivers on very modern high speed trains from Japan and see the same traits there too.
Back to flying, the instructors thought that my consistency throughout the course deserved recognition and luckily that year a new trophy was instigated in memory of Bill Smithson by his widow. I was very shocked to hear my name called out at the Wings Ceremony! It was for the best student fixed wing phase; Im sure I wasn’t, but there was no trophy for mister average. 
Pete, Very interesting thank you we need a UK version!
Malcolm
