Donkey's years ago at Odiham when Pumas were fairly new AOC 38 Group, as it was in those days, decided to accompany a crew on a weekend task to see how they performed. It was an underslung detail with the gunners up at Sennybridge. It involved refuelling at Leeming and so we arrived. We were directed to an area of the dispersal, shut down and awaited the bowser.
Unbeknown to us there had been an occasion where somebody had refuelled a piston with jet fuel or vice versa. To prevent a reoccurrence they had marked the pan with a line that AVTUR or AVTAG bowser could not cross. The local controller was a young WRAF and seeing large thrashing propellers she had assumed we had piston engines which was why we were in the wrong place and the AVTUR bowser driver refused to cross the line. It was quite chilly compared with daun sauf so I had lent my AVM my cold weather flying jacket whilst we sorted the problem out.
Eventually a Sqn. Ldr. intent on telling this low life who flew helicopters where to get off, insisted, in no uncertain terms, that if we wanted fuel we would have to push (5.6 tonnes) our helicopters onto the AVTUR line.
This is when the AVM took my Flt. Lt's jacket off.
The policy seemed to change quite rapidly.
A hangover to this was that for decades later one of the instructions on the Leeming approach plate was that if there were any senior officers on board the ATC were to be informed on first contact