Brooke,
Here is the rule in question;
"A pilot gets two lives in his aircraft. A pilot uses up a life (1) if he exits his plane anywhere but at the base where he took off (unless his home base was captured, in which case any base is OK) or (2) if he gets anything other than a "landed safely" massage upon ending his sortie. Thus, if you end your sortie (exit your aircraft) at a base you didn't take off from (other than if your home base was captured), you use up a life; if you end your sortie by a ditch, capture, bail, crash, death, etc. (anything but "landed safely"), you use up a life. You can use the refuel/rearm pad at any friendly base."
Does this mean that, if an aircraft sustains battle damage such that the aircraft is "BARELY" airworthy, but enough to RTB of origin. Following which a successful, "On Concrete Lanading", is the result. The pilot can then tower, re-plane a fresh ride, and not expend one of their allotted lives?
Is this correct?
As it has been explained to me: Yes, key term here is that "you have to land it". And it has to be on the concrete (to receive a landed safely message). Landing it but then loosing control of it (due to damage) and sliding off the edge of the runway/pavement, even by 1-inch, doesn't count and you loose a life (if you didn't receive the landed safely message).
Also if your plane is flyable but doesn't have enough gas to get back to home-base, you can refuel at any friendly base (via the rearm pad) and then continue to fly it back to your home-base.
I do have one question on this topic though that I haven't found in the rules or addressed in the arena: If you're plane is critically damaged (missing half a wing, radiator/oil is hit, dead engine, missing more parts than you aren't, etc.) and you don't think you can make it back to you're home-base, can you land at the nearest friendly base/field and have it not count as a life (even if you're in a plane and put it down at a VBase)? Also, what if you have critical damage (missing half of a wing) that you could make it back to home-base to land eventually (3 sectors away) but you want to avoid fighting to keep the critically damaged aircraft airborne longer than you have to (thus preferring to land at a number of closer bases).