A very puzzling very big thing indeed Danny. Puzzling because you as Adj was not made aware of its imminence. puzzling because it was the post and not the man that was so elevated, even more puzzling that the man should be so elevated anyway. Obviously the RAuxAF was not the RAF, and different rules it would seem applied but puzzling nevertheless, as you say.
The RAF had its own puzzling aspects in the converse situation, at least to an outsider. The aircraft captain, ie the member of aircrew who commanded the others during the "period of operation", was never defined by rank. Hence he could be a SNCO in command of commissioned officers (in WW2), or of junior rank to the others if all were commissioned or SNCOs, or simply the least paid of all anyway.
I fell into the last bracket as a Flg Off, with Flt Lt and above (right up to Wg Cdr) as well as Master Aircrew, all of who earned more than me, as I was single and most of them married and hence in receipt of marriage allowance. I was wont to remind them of this from time to time, if only when it was time to buy a round.
The Wg Cdr crewmember was of course the Sqn Cdr, and though a Nav was the one exception to the "First Pilot is Captain" rule in Transport/Air Support Command, in that he could be aircraft Captain himself. He always waived that right, happy for someone else for a change to have to do all the organising re early morning calls, pickup times, briefings, etc.
