In article
,
BeechSundowner wrote:

On Sep 11, 9:51*pm, Orval Fairbairn
wrote:
In article
,

Standard separation is 3 ft down (wingtips), 3 ft back (nose to tail),
establish your spots on your wingman to maintain a 45 deg angle. The
spots usually a aileron inboard trailing edge to wing TE and some
distinguishing mark on the fuselage, like a step, cowl latch, paint
stripe intersection with a door post, etc.

Remember -- if you can't see your wingman's head, he can't see you, so
you are out of position (usually sucked). In turns, you maintain
relative position, always keeping the spots aligned.

Throttle is your most important control.

Interesting, I didn't feel we were that close (3 feet). It felt close
but only a yard stick is mighty close!

I heard that term sucked, but I didn't quite understand "smooshed"? I
was thinking that was out of position?

Lead was working on his certification (I think NATA) in which this
flight was all about.

"Sucked" means that you are too far behind (obviously out of position,
enough that it takes a lot of effort to catch up).

"Acute" means that you are too far forward and need to back off power to
resume desired position.

"Stack low" means the formation is stepped, so #2 is lower than #1, etc.
This is the usual formation configuration. "Stack high" means that #2 is
higher than #1 and is better for aerial photography.

The reasons we stack low a
1. If a wingman lose power, he will shoot past safely.
2. It is easier to determine positioning spots on your wingman.

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