You can land and hit rearm pad in any senerio really. Nothing in code to stop you, though, rarely needed unless flying a very short legged aircraft.
Using a rearm pad does not fix aircraft damage. Best you can do is land the damaged plane so other side does not get points for the kill. Usually you can join other pilots as gunner (or even observers in fighters), but your fighting is done for the night.
I hope poor attendence is just a holidays thing. Last couple I looked at did not have numbers either. Not like we used to get.