"Orval Fairbairn" wrote in message
news
In article ,
Dylan Smith wrote:

In article nospam-8F2145.22212702082004@shawnews, tony roberts wrote:
This reminds me of the old discussion on formation flight.
Why do we want to fly close enough to someone who is not trained in
formation flight so that we can wave to him?
We just saw him 20 minutes ago, and we'll see him again in 10 minutes
when we land.

We don't need to bloody wave to him from 20ft wingtip to wingtip!

I am seriously starting to doubt whether it's me that is missing
something, or everyone else!

Yes - you are missing something, quite a lot in fact if you think we fly
formation just to wave at our friends. There are many reasons to fly
formation in civil aircraft - the most common is to get in-flight
photographs of another aircraft, but quite often it's done because when
done well, it is very rewarding. The only 'waving' we do at the other
pilot is hand signals.

One of my most rewarding cross country flights was Houston to Oshkosh
and back again - almost 25 hours of formation flying with a C170 and a
C140.


AMEN to that! Formation flying is a precision maneuver -- not to be
taken casually. It requires that everybody knows the signals and
protocols associated with formation flying. The T34 Assn. has a good
formation flying manual, as do the Swift Assn. and the Yak Assn.

Every flight should both brief and debrief, so everybody knows what went
right as well as what needs improvement.

BTW, Dylan, do you know Ian McFayden, at the Isle of Man?

A couple of advantages formation flying provides is extra sets of eyes to
help see and avoid and a larger object for others to see.