Mailing List lml@lancaironline.net Message #69574
From: <dudewanarace@yahoo.com>
Sender: <marv@lancaironline.net>
Subject: Formation Flying
Date: Tue, 25 Mar 2014 11:46:22 -0400
To: <lml@lancaironline.net>
Not to drag out the subject, as everything important has been said I think.  But there is one scenario that I think is very important.

As you can see from my YouTube Channel I have a fair amount of formation experience in my 360 with a variety of aircraft.  I do have my FAST Wingman card.

One of the hardest things is knowing when to bail out of the formation.  Often I refer to this as a "Rope a Dope" situation.  Your #4 in an echelon and the RV leading the flight starts an inside turn. (relative to you)  The desire to hold your position (station keeping) means you chop the throttle and get very slow on the inside of the turn.  It is very easy to forget just how slow your going and the math starts working against you quickly.  Know when to depart and have a plan for that, a plan everyone else knows about.

When flying with the RV's in the pattern, they generally do a 3 or 5 second separation in the overhead break.  I ALWAYS make sure I am the last one in the formation and make that 10 seconds or more.  Then it is just a matter of working the angles to leave yourself enough space on the runway.  At Reno, we use Hot/Cold runways, but that won't work with Bonanza's at your average local runway.  We also brief at what exit to use on the runway, it is an exit waaay down near the end, if not THE end.  First planes down land a bit long, and keep their speed up (within reason) to leave room behind for the others.

These sorts of things are all covered in proper formation training.  FAST and FFI.

Tom McNerney
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