Some years ago, we led one of those dog and pony show things for a visiting (shadow?) defence minister, Lord Soames. 3 tankers, plus lots of receivers..
My crew had been allocated a VC10K2 which, as was often the case back then, had a restricted fuel load. So, as a small change to the plan, we asked whether the K3 would give us our extra fuel as soon as we coasted out; this could then be observed by Soames in the C1K from echelon.
The K3 crew readily agreed, but the reply from the shiny crew was a bit non-operational: "Aaah, we're just serving luncheon, so we would rather you waited until later....."
"Well, we'll change lead after the corridor, and if the K3 trails at coast out, we'll prod asap. If Bunter can get his snout out of the trough in time, you can watch - otherwise hold clear!", we replied.
"Aaah - you will be pleased to know that His Lordship is no longer on headset", the shiny crew sniffily replied.....
Ooops....
