Slitherine

This used to drive me nuts in the old game and it just bit me on the behind again.
I read manual and thought if yu lost airfield planes would go back to old base.
Playing sealion invasion and just lost a tone of experienced aircraft when I lost an airfield.
anybody know whats up?
I want to avoid this going forward

Aircraft will crash if there's no other base in range for them to rebase to, no free slots at existing bases, or -- most commonly -- because weather prevents them from flying. So don't lose airfields when it's raining/snowing.

You can take advantage of that. Capture an enemy airfield, where there is a plane located, while it's snowing.