Okay, maybe useless is the wrong word.
Grossly inadequate is more descriptive.
The manual by itself is too basic and leaves out too much really
important information.
If you can get your hands on the US Navy T-34C manual, you will have
something practical.

Dudley Henriques wrote:
You are correct about the T34 Manual.
Also, the T34 Manual is recognized and recommended by every competent source
on formation flying in aviation. What makes it so useful for General
Aviation is that it stresses a SIMPLE formation doctrine instead of covering
all the possibilities and concentrates on just the formations that will be
useful for getting planes and pilots to the destinations together and in one
piece, then doing a simple formation display, which is the very essence of
General Aviation formation flying .
The T34 Manual is good enough for EAA, and good enough for Bob Hoover, and
it's good enough for me, and I've flown and taught a LOT of formation!! :-))
Dudley Henriques
International Fighter Pilots Fellowship
Commercial Pilot; CFI; Retired
dhenriquestrashatearthlinktrashdotnet
(take out the trash :-)

"Eric Rood" wrote in message
The T-34 manual on that website is practically useless.

"Kyle Boatright" wrote in message
Hmm, considering that it is THE most referenced resource when you talk
with the various amateur formation groups, I'd say "useless" is simply
wrong. The T-34 manual is the basis for most of the amateur formation
training clinics that are held every year. It gives pilots a common set
of terms and procedures, as well as a common set of visual signals that
are used for communicating within a formation without creating a bunch of
radio chatter.