I do understand the strains that AT are under but fail to see the 'huge' impact on an aircraft being loaded or unloaded at a different airfield, is it truly that difficult and given the percieved level of difficulty has it been assessed in a manner that balances the needs of all, not just AT?
It
IS about balancing the needs of all. Assuming that the extra flying time involved is do-able within Crew Duty limits, the airfield requested is suitable, equipped, and prepared to open outside hours (assuming this is necessary - often they are not, as what budget holder has the spare cash to open his airfield out of hours these days?), your load is not so large it precludes the delivery leg by taking up wieght required for the extra fuel involved, and many other factors in the process, requests by 'customers' for 'home airhead' loading / unloading CAN be accomodated......IF the 'customer' is prepared to foot the (often significant) extra costs involved - which they very often are not.
Even if the above applied, many other things can stand in the way. The general paucity of AT assets, and flying hours available on them will always be a factor nowadays. Also, if your task takes an extra 10 hours (not uncommon when you factor in transit time to you 'manor', loading and unloading time, and transit time back to the the AT MOB), that is 10 hours that somebody else cannot make use of the AT asset for, which would preclude, for example, an entire Gib resupply taking place.
Many customers of AT, understandably, fail to grasp the way the AT world operates - although to you, your tasking / deployment / exercise / freight move is the most important thing in the world, so is everybody elses! We serve a much wider community than you might imagine and in the current climate it is the norm for the few serviceable airframes we can offer to be continuously tasked in between periods of maintenance and rectification - therefore every hour added to a task for your convenience will mean an hour less for somebody else. It has to come from somewhere!
In days gone by we had the airframes (less knackered and with plenty of flying hours) and the crews, to have much more flexibility over these issues. With today's Op tempo, an ageing fleet that we have to stretch out to meet in-service dates of long-awaited replacements, and ever-shrinking budgets
everywhere, sadly we cannot do for you what we really would like to be able to - to make your moves as hassle-free as possible.