Hastings ready to go at 0800 every morning, plus a spare if it went u/s. The other three were on maintenance and could be raided for spares if really necessary
My father was a pilot on 202 from 1947 to 1950 on Halifaxs. A year or so before that he had been ferrying new Halifaxs from the factory to Edzell in Scotland to be broken up. There was a chronic shortage of spares for Halifaxs as there were only two squadrons, the other in Gibraltar. To overcome this my father would load half a dozen in a Halifax, fly them to Dyce, then stay at the Caledonian Hotel in Aberdeen whilst they drove down to Edzell and robbed the remains for what they could get.
The next day he would fly the bits and blokes back.