doBack in the mid-'80s, VC10K / Lightning tanker trails from Akrotiri to UK were quite common and usually went pretty well. They took about 6 hrs for the Lightning mates, who were usually pretty happy to have plenty of fuel. If there was a T5 in the formation, there was a no-diversion 'critical area' somewhere near Crete which required the Tub to be in contact before reaching it, then remaining in contact until we'd flown through it - which concentrated the mind of the Lightning pilot, no doubt.
But on one occasion as we were about to reach the last bracket somewhere south of Paris, the Lightning leader called up to say that "We don't need the last bracket". A Lightning refusing a tanker several hundred miles from base was a new one on me - and I could just imagine the "Flt Lt, why did you short change the receivers when you had plenty of fuel?" Axminster shuffle I'd be having if we'd let him have his way and the formation had ended up diverting here, there and everywhere. So I politely informed said leader that I was obliged to follow the briefed plan, so would they please do so too.
They did so, but after they'd finished the leader came up on the R/T telling his colleagues that he needed them all to fly 'x' amount of hours before landing, which seemed odd to us - but I guessed that there was some silly fuel vs. time chart on their boss's wall which was the driver...
A few days later Jim U, my Boss, asked why I'd made them use the final bracket, so I told him that amendments to the plan had to be based on rather more than some fighter mate's WAG. Boss told me that the Lightning leader was OC 5 Sqn - and that if he'd been in my place and had known that who the leader was, he'd have binned the last bracket as requested. To which I replied "Boss, if I'd known that it would have given me even MORE reason to insist that they must stick to the plan!".