Weather Minima/Aircraft Command
Shytorque
Reading back, perhaps my question was not clear. I was asking if the weather minima would have been the same for a tactical sortie where it might be necessary to accept a greater risk than they would be for a VFR pax-carrying A to B flight sooner than for the aircraft type/Mark.
When you say that the aircraft was grounded the day before, do you mean that this specific aircraft was unserviceable or that the type itself was 'grounded' so that none of them could fly?
A delicate question. During my ten years with the Air Corps and twenty-five years as a civilian pilot I was never in any doubt about the responsibilty and authority of an aircraft commander. On my first operational unit my flight commander would give me any amount of advice but he would not make the final go/no-go decision for me, "its what you're paid for, lad!!". I once had to tell a very senior officer that I would not land him where he requested, then demanded. He was not happy but the system of 'aircraft commander' worked and I heard no more about it. A lot has been written about political pressure/senior command pressure being applied. Is there any suggestion that in the RAF SH force of that time, pressure was put on aircrews generally by someone senior in rank to carry out sorties with which they were not entirely happy or in aircraft about which there was substantiated concern about its airworthiness?