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This presentation has been organized to follow the time-line of a
typical formation flight – preflight, taxi, departure, joinup, cruise, and landing. It is aimed at the knowledgeable private pilot who is competent in a typical
single-engine, light plane, and who has always wanted to try formation, but has never had the
opportunity. The objective of the
briefing is to cover some of the basics of what makes a formation flight work smoothly.
By no means is this presentation
comprehensive! It is not reasonable (nor possible) to learn
formation flight on
the ground! Rather, the intent is to
focus on areas that may give the novice
formation pilot the
most trouble, and on the fundamental dynamics of formation flight. Important topics such as power management, formation
configuration changes, basic hand signals, practice formation exercises, and much more generally
are left to the more appropriate realm of ground and air instruction with a competent formation
instructor.
I have
tried to stick to the formation flight procedures that have been developed by
the military over the
course of millions of hours of flight time.
Most of these time
proven procedures
are directly
applicable to civilian formation flight.
There are a few aspects of “traditional” military formation flight, however, that I
believe require some modifications to better match the operational world of the civilian
pilot. For example, radio procedures in
the military typically call
for extreme discipline. The flight
leader talks (occasionally); while the rest of the flight watches for his hand signals,
monitors the air-to-air frequency, and generally observes radio silence. But the civilian pilot often has neither the
experience nor the station holding skills to rely on hand signals. Thus, for the safety of the flight, more
radio communications usually are required in civilian flights. I
will try to note those instances where I believe that military procedures might not be the “full
story” for the civilian formation pilot.
This presentation is limited to the basics of formation flight. It focuses on typical flight characteristics for our homebuilt
aircraft. That is, relatively
low-powered, low-drag, piston-engine, aircraft. Much of it is
based on professionally produced material – Thanks T-34 Association! I
have, however, incorporated a lot of actual formation experience accumulated over more than 400
hours in my VariEze. While I have made
my best effort to emphasize
safe formation flight techniques, it is strictly your responsibility to ensure your own safety and that of your flight
mates! I cannot accept any liability for this
responsibility!
The middle of a
formation flight is not the place or the time to be
learning how to fly! Before participating in any
formation flight, you must be comfortable with your plane’s handling, its control response, and
its instrumentation. Because you aren’t
going to be able to
divert much attention from the task of maintaining safe separation in the air,
flying your plane
should be second nature.
The place to pick up basic
formation concepts is on the ground prior to flight. The cockpit is not a
conducive environment to resolving uncertainties about what you should be
doing! Obviously, a firm grasp of basic formation
concepts before launch will make for safer and more effective practice in the air. Another major advantage of learning from a
professional source is
the use of standardized procedures.
This will make formation flight with similarly trained pilots much more predictable, and
hence safer and more enjoyable. As a
good place to start, I
would recommend the T-34 Association’s 4-hour video “Formation Flight - The Art” and the associated
manual.
It is true, however, that most civilian pilots
are likely to be largely self-taught.
That formation
flight can and usually is successfully learned this way is a testament to the
fact that formation flight is really not
that difficult. The key is to always remain within your
skill and comfort
limits, while still continuing to hone your proficiency. Overall, civilian formation flight has an excellent safety
record.
FAA regulations governing formation flight are minimal. There are no requirements for special training, logbook
endorsements, limitations to similar aircraft types, or operational restrictions (e.g., day-VRF, no Class Bravo, etc.). The
regulations do require that the flight be pre-arranged by the participants and that flight separation be adequate at all times.
What is
“adequate” is left to the judgement (and skill) of the pilots. Be assured – if you have a collision, your spacing was not adequate and you are in violation of the
FARs (and worse!).
Formation flight can be a high
workload environment. Uncertainty in any aspect of the flight dramatically increases the potential for errors, and can
result in a collision, runway incursion, penetration of restricted airspace, etc. It is
critically
important that
every member of a
flight know exactly what is expected at all times. If there is any doubt about what is happening (or about to happen), the
situation absolutely must be clarified before it deteriorates into an unsafe condition. The need for radio discipline always is secondary to flight safety! A thorough preflight briefing is the first
line of defense against mix-ups in the air. Do
use a formal
checklist in this
preflight briefing to ensure that all points are covered. Also, be sure that you discuss the experience level and limitations of every pilot and every aircraft in your formation.
One all too common problem is for
radio frequency screw-ups. When to
switch and what frequency
to use are critical items to brief because the safety of the flight is
seriously compromised
when communications are lost! Hand
signals, while useful, generally do not provide a reliable form of backup communications for civilian formation
pilots.
Putting an inexperienced (or poor) pilot in
the lead is a common error. While
flying lead may look
easy, it requires in-depth knowledge and experience! A poor lead places the entire formation in jeopardy. Besides, if the guy really is so green that
you can’t trust him to fly wing, then he clearly needs more experience before it is safe for him
to fly in formation.
The time to find out that someone's radio doesn't
work, or that he has the wrong air-to-air frequency is on the ramp, not in the run-up
area – or even worse, in the air! Only
the lead needs to get the full ATIS information.
It's more important for the flight to be waiting for him on one
frequency. After getting the ATIS, lead
will call "Eze flight, radio check… one" The flight will respond "two …, three, … etc." to verify that
they are up and ready. Based on the
ATIS, lead then calls “Eze flight … expect runway #, wind xxx at xx, altimeter xx.xx,”
and any other pertinent ATIS information.
The
lead may choose to exclude extraneous ATIS information (airship operations on
a closed runway,
etc.) if it isn't relevant
to flight safety. Lead then calls “Eze
Flight … monitor ground on xxx point x”, and he looks for “thumbs up” from #2 to
begin his taxi. A "thumbs up"
from #2 indicates
that #2 is ready and that #2 has a verified “thumbs up” from #3, #3 has
verified #4, etc.
When taxiing on the ramp,
precision is just as important as in the air – perhaps more so since you are more visible, and a
collision is arguably more likely (no step-down here!). The military guys like line-in-trail taxi; but you
eat a lot of wind in an Eze, and a tight angle-off taxi looks sharper.
Rushing your run-up is a very bad
idea! Take your time and be sure you
are completely ready before committing with a “thumbs up”.
You are going to have very little time on the roll to catch a problem, so do it right
at run-up! Ideally, lead would instruct
the flight to switch to tower prior to launch. The ground controller, however, will not like you using his
frequency for your flight communications!
This comment goes double for the tower and ATC, so don’t “borrow”
controller frequencies
for use by the flight. The best
procedure is for everyone to switch to tower prior to “thumbs up”, just like solo
flight. If you don’t hear tower clear
the flight to depart, you messed up.
Remember
– only the lead's transponder should be on.
Multiple transponders will generate a mid-air warning on ATC radar that will
drive the controllers crazy. Definitely
expect to hear from them if you forget to turn your transponder off!
Even though
it makes join-up a bit more difficult, start off by using staggered
departures.
Once you have some formation time under your belt and have built up
your confidence, you are ready for a two-ship (or element) departure. Leave three- and four-ship departures to the
pros!
Generally,
two-ship departures are quite easy to accomplish since the lateral clearance
offered by most GA
runways more than adequate. The key to safe departures is for the wingman to maintain the correct “acute,
angle-off” geometry
with respect to the lead aircraft throughout the roll. Obviously, he also has to stay on his side
of the runway centerline.
A nearly universal mistake is for
the wingman to fall behind the lead (become “sucked”) during take-off. If the lead has some type of tire, brake or
wheel failure, a “sucked” wingman stands an excellent chance of participating in a ground
collision! A second major source of
take-off error is improper
power management by the lead. The lead must leave the wingman some power margin so that he can maintain the correct
angle-off position. Departing at less
than full power is something
that the average pilot finds highly unnatural.
Thus, all else being equal, it is advantageous to have the lower performance
plane take the lead on departure so that he can use full power, with the wingman pulling off
power, as required, to maintain position.
The
possibility of an abort on departure should be pre-briefed, and both pilots
should be prepared to
abort at any time. Either pilot can
call an abort. However, unless a
“flight abort” (as opposed to “abort, abort”) is called, the safest course of action may be for
the “non-abort” plane to continue the take-off. This is a
pilot decision that each flight member must be prepared to make.
If a multiple-element (i.e., more than two-plane) departure is
planned, each element should delay its roll until the preceding element breaks ground. Reducing this delay by rolling early makes join-up easier, but it isn’t worth
cutting into the safety margin of the flight.
Note that
with a staggered departure, each plane can start to roll when the plane on his
side of the runway is
off the ground. Thus a multi-element
flight can be launched nearly as quickly by using a staggered departure procedure as it can by
departing as a series of two-ship elements.
Departure puts a heavy demand on the skills of both the lead and the
wingman. Things happen fast once an element breaks ground!
This is definitely one of the most demanding phases of formation flight, and it is not the
time to demonstrate what a “sierra hotel” formation pilot you are! Leave that to the Thunderbirds and Blue Angels. Give the lead enough room so that you both
can get your gears up,
climb rates stabilized, and generally get into the “groove” of flying.
In the case of the lead, his central objective
is to fly a flight profile that is readily achievable by his wingman.
In particular, he must moderate his power and flight path because too
much power, too high a
climb rate, and/or tight turns will blow the wingman away into an impossible, “sucked” flight geometry. Extending the departure before turning
cross- and down-wind almost always is a good idea, particularly if there are more than
two planes in the formation. This gives
stragglers room to
“cut the corner” in order to catch up.
The wingman’s job on departure is to maintain 100% eye contact with the lead, and to accomplish a smooth and safe join-up.
Nothing is more discouraging than hearing on downwind that your wingman is already lost! It happens, sad but true, and it is a sure
sign of a major screw-up. The wingman will soon learn that
catching the lead by using power is difficult and dangerous. It seems to take forever, and then suddenly he is faced
with an unexpected and horrendously high closure rate that can easily result in a severe
overshoot. Be smart and use turn geometry, not power,
to control your
join-up! The time to catch the lead is on the
cross-wind and down-wind turns. Turn inside the lead to overtake, turn
outside to fall back.
In the case of a straight-out departure, the lead needs to cut the
wingman some slack in both the power and climb departments.
Also, the wingman should avoid catching the lead from directly behind where an overshoot becomes
both more probable, and more dangerous.
It is hard to overstress the importance of avoiding an overshoot condition!
The only two things that are worse are: flying over the top of the lead, and hitting
him! Common situations leading to overshoot are: 1) misjudging the closure rate on
join-up 2) lead turning into the wing,
and 3) bunching up in the pattern and on final to
land.
The natural inclination when joining up on the
inside of a turn with an excessive closure rate is to increase your bank angle to avoid hitting the
lead. This is very dangerous! Increasing your bank angle decreases the turn radius,
further increasing the closure rate by cutting off the lead. Additionally, wing is likely to lose sight of the lead when he goes
“belly up”. This is a tailor made prescription for a mid-air!
The correct procedure is to pass below and behind the lead to the outside of the turn where the
longer flight path can “soak up” the excess speed. Once wing has his speed under control, he can again cross-under
and behind the lead to take his assigned position.
In station keeping (as in most other phases of
formation flight), relative
motion is everything! The sooner undesirable relative motion is detected
and decisive corrective action taken, the smoother and easier it is to fly formation. A common mistake by the new formation pilot
is a failure to make
prompt and aggressive power changes. A
wingman using this “walking on eggshells” approach to power management quickly finds
himself drifting out of formation at an increasing rate.
The belated response then is a really big power change to arrest a
deteriorating situation – which culminates in a wild excursion in the other direction (i.e., PIO,
pilot induced oscillation). A key characteristic of our planes is
a very sluggish
response to power changes. They respond more like an ocean liner than a car –
and they don’t have
brakes! Anticipating this delay is a skill that the formation pilot can only
acquire with practice, but it is crucial to precision station keeping.
In contrast with relatively aggressive power
changes, accurate station keeping calls for continuous, but very small changes in pitch,
bank and yaw. Remember, formation
flight is not aerobatics!
Enroute formation is what almost everyone thinks of when they think of
formation – that is, flying in a precise position with respect to another (leader) plane. To state what is perhaps the obvious, it is
the job of the wing to
hold his position with respect to the lead.
Lead should never attempt to control the position of his wingman by turning
or altering power. Any decent wingman
will immediately alter his course and/or power to match the leader’s change, because he is flying
where he is for a reason – namely, because that’s where he thinks he should be and/or where he is
comfortable. If the lead wants his wing in a different position he
needs to tell the wing what he wants.
If this is outside the comfort zone of the wing (e.g., too close to lead) it’s his call, and the
lead must respect wing’s personal limits.
Conversely,
wing may want to fly in an uncomfortable or unsafe location in the opinion of
the lead. In this case, wing must do his best to correct
his position, under the guidance/request of the lead, or else the formation just isn’t going
to work for these pilots.
The key to holding station is
aligning two points on the lead plane to set the desired “angle-off” (e.g., leading edge of the winglet with the front edge of the headrest). Focusing on the alignment of these two points will immediately show
the direction and magnitude of any relative motion between the two planes. This technique will produce very accurate positioning! When adjusting spacing between the lead and wing, this angle should be
maintained as accurately as possible, with the wing sliding “up and down the line”. I suggest you start with about a 45 degree
angle-off; but find an angle that works for your flight. Lead should be able to see wing
comfortably. For safety, the wing
should always maintain
nose-to-tail, wing-to-wing, and step-down clearance from the lead – no overlap allowed!
A typical error for the beginning pilot is to
take up position well behind the lead (sucked) and/or many hundreds of feet away. These locations are very difficult to fly
accurately because the wing will have great difficulty judging relative motion, his
geometry is terrible for turns, and flying sucked, sucks for the lead (he can’t see his wingman)! Make your job a lot easier by flying
reasonably close to the lead. Once you get really, really good you can fly out in the
boondocks!
Please resist the temptation to yak
on the radio! Other people need the
frequency. For flight safety and power setting information – absolutely; but please, cut out
the chatter! The military guys are very
hard over on this
point; but since we aren’t out to bomb North Korea, just use common sense.
Landing in trail isn’t particularly difficult, but there are some
significant differences from landing solo. One obvious difference is
that you are going to be a whole lot closer to other traffic in the pattern than you have ever
(intentionally) been before! A second
difference is the ground roll phase where you can expect to be sharing the runway with the other members of
your flight.
The essence of a safe formation
arrival followed by an “in-trail” landing is to make a clean separation between the “formation”
and the “solo” phases of flight. During
the formation phase of landing,
it is particularly critical to maintain a high level of flight discipline, especially because you are going to be very busy configuring the plane for
landing (mixture,
power, gear, etc.), and maintaining your awareness of other traffic in the pattern
and all tower instructions. In this
phase, lead’s primary
job is to get his flight into the pattern safely and configured for a
comfortable breakup
for landing. Speed control and thinking
ahead is critical! Things can
deteriorate quickly if the
lead does not carefully modulate his power changes and turns.
Typically, the first really big power
reduction that the wing encounters on the flight is when the lead enters the pattern, and it can be a
big surprise!
Wing should be spring loaded to match lead’s power reduction, or an over-run situation
is almost certain to develop. Thus, the
lead has an obligation to make gradual
power reductions,
and he must
maintain a comfortable flight speed.
Over-running the lead
with your throttle at idle and your airspeed as low as it can go is not fun!
Once you get really good, you can consider an
overhead break. Until then, I would
recommend that the
break occur as the formation turns from downwind to base. Lead breaks first, followed by the rest of the flight at 3–5 seconds
intervals each. Lead should avoid
bunch-up by maintaining a little extra speed on final. This gives
his flight some speed to “play with” to maintain proper spacing. The opposite condition, with the flight spread out all over the place
on final is an even more common error. Remember, that as
a flight, you are treated as a single plane.
Tower is not expecting your flight to take 10 minutes to
land! Lead can do the tower a favor by
announcing, for example,
“flight of three, landing in quarter mile trail”.
Wake turbulence is a
significant hazard landing in-trail. Know where it is and then don’t
go there!!
Well, you’re finally ready for the big time – a 2-ship, formation
landing. But are you really ready? Be sure
you are, because
this is the “real deal”! Need I say
that you need to be completely in control of your plane at all times, and capable of
holding tight formation? Well,
absolutely for sure, you do!
It might seem like the wingman has
to do all the work in a 2-ship landing.
All the lead does is fly the pattern and land. Meanwhile, the
wing has to demonstrate very precise station holding skills under dynamic conditions. But don’t underestimate the importance of
having an experienced and precise pilot flying lead in a 2-ship landing!
The lead must have an in-depth understanding of formation dynamics to avoid making a tough
job a lot tougher for the wing. Smooth
pitch, bank, and power changes
are a must! Remember, the wing
generally doesn’t know that the lead has made any changes until he notices some unexpected relative motion.
Smooth power changes and gentle turns by the lead give the wingman a much better
chance to adjust his power and flight path without moving noticeably out of formation – or worse!
Remember the acute position needed for
take-off? This is also the appropriate
angle-off geometry for a 2-ship landing for the same reason – namely, collision avoidance on the
runway. Also, wing needs to eliminate any step-down prior to
arrival over the runway since he certainly doesn’t want to be touching down short while lead is still in
the air. Properly flown, the wing only
needs an occasional glance at the runway to verify that lead is properly aligned and to estimate the time
remaining to touch-down.
Maintaining an acute angle-off
throughout the landing roll calls for a lot of concentration and skill! Beginners often tend to fall well behind the lead during final and/or
rollout, exposing the flight to the potential for a collision if something goes wrong with the lead’s
landing. It is also easy to overrun the
lead on the ground due
to different drag and rolling characteristics of the planes. The best prevention for this problem is for the lead to roll-out
with a touch of residual power and no brakes until his speed has dropped well below flight
speed. Don’t be afraid to use plenty of
runway, that’s why they make them so long. Did I mention that
you both need your gears down? Check
your buddy’s gear on final!
Lead should never,
ever cross the
runway centerline until he is down to taxi speed and has verified that his wing is in position and in full
control of his roll-out. (A quick call
– “#2 clear” helps.)