Lt Colonel "Spruce" is the commander of a flying squadron. Around the middle of August he assembles all of the pilots assigned to his organization and explains the facts of fiscal life to them.

"I hope most of you know this already, but if you don’t, let me explain to you how the budget process works. Every fiscal year, our squadron is allocated a certain number of flying hours deemed necessary for us to maintain our proficiency. One major way of figuring out how many hours we need is to look at how many hours we’ve used in the past. If this year’s allocation is 1000 hours, but we only use 750 hours, then how many do you think we’ll get next year? Truth is, we’d be lucky to get those 750.

"Let me promise you this: I won’t be the one to tell the Wing Commander that you people didn’t need the hours you were allocated. I’m the guy who told him we needed 1200 but we’d settle for 1000!"

Spruce sternly surveys the room before continuing.

"The fiscal year ends 30 September. By my calculations, each one of you must log an additional 4.5 hours flying time if we are to zero out this year’s flying hour allocation. I’m going to get maintenance to do their part, and I’m going to ask the Chaplain to pray for good weather. All you have to do is go out there and bore holes in the sky!"