Pontius Navigator alleged:
....opcon in a Vulcan would swop from front to back throughout the sortie. The only crew member that only had an advisory roll was the copilot.
Nope. Of course guidance came from the lower deck at times and most IP-to-release and visual bombing was conducted by the co-pilot. But never at any time was 'opcon' ever removed from the Captain.
For example, during fighter affil., fishpool information from the Nav Radar, RWR information from the AEO and visual information from the non-flying pilot was passed to the pilot flying, to enable the threat to be honoured, but the Captain always made the decisions.
I always thought that FJ mates were very restrained at air show parties when invaded by a Bandar-log of teenage plastic sergeants from the kipper fleet, banging on about how wunnerful they all were and how FJ flying was sooo inferior. "Why do you put up with such utter BS", I asked an F-4 mate once. "They don't know any better - but we do", was the reply.