[Juha]

Thanks, Nifty and Franek!
so RAF system was more similar to that of USAAF than I remembered. I had forgot the stick time factor.
And Nifty, thanks for the Johnson info, I remember now reading that and then trying to estimate the number of sorties he flew but I cannot recall my conclusion.

Johnson seems to have been able to cut at least one of his rest tour short by pulling right strings. In FAF Luukkanen was first lentueenpäällikkö (StaKa) and then laivueenkomentaja (GruppenKom), and he had decided to fly as many missions as possible and his position allowed him to do that. Juutilanen and Pyötsiä were both pre-war regular sotilasmestareita (W/Os) and at least Juutilainen did his best to be able to fly max number of sorties. His aim was to become/ stay as the top ace of FAF. And because he seems to have had exceptional situation awareness and because he was a good team player in spite of his eagerness to get more kills patrol leaders were eager to accept his offers to fly with them. Somehow I have got an impression that Johnson also tried to fly as many mission as possible in order to become/to stay as the top ace of RAF. And based on his memoirs it seems that tour system or not, he managed to accumulate higher number of combat sorties than would have been possible by strictly following the regulations. Probably there were also others who did the same.

Juha