First Multi-ship Formation for David

[Guest davidh10]

I have previously written a couple of Blog entries (now archived due to the new site software not supporting a Blog yet) about my commencement of formation training. This constitutes the next step in the process, moving from individual one-on-one training with two aircraft, to a multi-ship formation.

 

On Monday afternoon I participated, as #2, in a six ship formation, flying a right eschelon partly around a racetrack pattern, mostly anticlockwise to assist with holding formation in the turns. After a number of cycles we performed a right hand turn before undertaking a change of lead (#2 exchanging places with #1). About 40 minutes of formation flying was then completed with a flight into the aerodrome on upwind, just beside the runway at circuit height, and a progressive "pitch and recover" landing by each aircraft in turn. There's some photos, obviously not taken by me, in an article on the school web site.

 

By the time we landed there was a number of cars parked on the public road at the end of the runway, watching the formation. Reports from a number of people around the town who also watched, indicated that they thought it looked pretty good. We, as pilots, however realise that while it was ok, we all have a lot more practise to do to make it smoother and more accurately stay on-station. There's still a lot to learn and practise to eventually receive our formation endorsements. Then, continued practise to keep them*.

 

I have to say that I'm really enjoying this training, not that I haven't enjoyed all my training, but it is hard work and we all had sore arms afterwards. That is due to having the bar pulled back to varying degrees all of the flight and you are continually working bar and throttle to stay on station. Being in such close proximity, you really notice how much the pod of the trike you are following is swaying and yawing under the apparently stationary wing. It really gives a new perception of the nature of turbulence and its effect on the trike. You can also see your lead encounter each bump and feel it yourself a split second later.

 

*Under the school formation rules, to be eligible to fly formation, among other requirements, we will need to keep current, prove continued practise in multi-ship formations and be subject to annual formation flight reviews by the CFI.