^^ ah so thats the general guidelines.
I too dont bother saving mid patrol in GWX as the saved game i've tried mid patrol will not load. I dont even get an error message, it just says "not too long ago" then i'm back in the desktop and you'd never know I was even in SH3!
Unfortunately now this means my patrols normally take the good majority of a day to complete. Maybe thats a good thing.....