In the present economic climate, Sid, you sound like you're putting a barrel in each foot.
We were not allowed to overfly the hours allocated per year, endex. Money was very tight even though ours was a brand new unit; later in my time there as chief plot I was constantly reminded of the fact. So we didn't take off without a specific task in mind. Obviously, if we were airborne and an ad hoc task request came in, we would respond if it was justified. Thankfully the unit was based fairly centrally to the main requirement so transit times were not often the major issue. However, it's fair to say that some tasks were seen as unrealistic in a practical timescale and these were usually not attended. The only way around the latter problem is more, locally based helicopters - the very opposite of the present regime under NPAS. Which imho is a retrograde step, done merely to slash the budget.