Soggyboxers - I do understand your criticisms of the RAF - I was on exchange with the AAC for 7 years and found the lack of obsessive rule-following and oversupervision very refreshing. Now I am back in the fold I still despair at the unneccessary layers of confusing orders we are required to observe as each succesive strata of 'management' seek to cover their backsides to ensure they could never be held responsible for anything a pilot did.
However, 2 points - firstly it was the RN who were threatening to court martial triplematchedtq - a massive overreaction - it probably would have been a unit enquiry in the RAF or Form5 action in the AAC. Secondly my comments on triplematchedtq's actions are based on my opinions - a chase aircraft is a very good idea whether it was RN or RAF - only last year a Chivenor cab was positioned as a chase ac for a similar job in awful conditions, the RN cab had to turn back and the RAF one did the job. It could easily have been the other way round but the job got done.