I recall on one Exercise Priory that a few aircraft at Coningsby missed the initial scramble and launched just as the raid broke. While the initial aircraft recovered in around one hour, shot out, the late comers were just left on cap for the rest of the day with sorties of around 7.5 hours. Now that was numb bumming as they only had the tanker to keep their interest up.
At least they got back to Coningsby. I had the misfortune of landing there one Friday afternoon at the end of an exercise to drop off a couple of Phantom guys we had taken up in the morning only to remove most of the tailwheel (AEW Shack) and thus close the runway for about 12 hours. Unfortunately all the rest of the wing was airborne after the survival scramble, and it was the night of a VIP dining in night. Also unfortunately, by now the only airfield still open for F4s was Leeming. A very long bus ride later (in Goon Suits and suitable 'on-bus' liquid refreshment) the crews arrived back looking for a Shack crew. Luckily we had taken refuge in the local hostelry, and by the following morning our excellent gc's, who had driven down overnight, had changed said tailwheel and we made a 'swift' getaway!