Traron Squadron

I want to share some thoughts about formation flying from a wingman's perspective. Not having had the benefit of military formation training, I started by attending a CAF TRARON formation clinic shortly after acquiring my T-6 type aircraft in 1988. It was very, very informative and helpful, and Sebe Simpson, among others, showed great patience and intestinal fortitude in flying with a guy who had never flown close to another airplane on purpose before. I learned a lot. I continued and to this day continue to learn from every formation flight. I was fortunate to fall in with a group of very experienced T-6 pilots who invited me to fly along with them from time to time at one event or another. I also had the opportunity to fly "pick-up" formation flights at other air shows and fly-ins I attended over the years. In the early years of my experience of course, there was no FAST or other formalized training program other than CAF's TRARON that I was aware of. To fly formation at an air show, one simply showed up, went to the pilot briefing, met whoever else showed up, and you put something together on the spot. That's still done to some extent, but with the FAST program, you do at least have some idea that those you're flying with have had at least some basic level of training. This is a good thing, for the most part.

Over the years, air shows became less and less fun, and I pretty much quit going to them. The group I had been flying with sort of broke up for various reasons, and I don't live very close to anyone else I could fly formation with on a regular basis. I still flew formation from time to time, mostly with a neighbor flying a Mooney M20, and occasionally with another T-6 type. Now I'm getting ready to get back into it with a CAF Wing, and am to attend my second TRARON formation clinic in a mere 14 years to get re-qualified as a wingman. I've always preferred flying wing to leading, flying #2 in a two-ship and #4 in a four ship. Those positions are more fun to fly, and give me an extra out, ya' know.

This has gotten me to thinking about some of the leaders I've flown with over the years, both good and bad, the ones who were experienced, and those who weren't. I found that experience didn't always make for a good leader from my point of view out there on his wing.

To a point, a wingman should be able to stick with his leader, even if the leader does something unexpected. I personally don't feel hand signals are all that necessary before beginning a normal, i.e., gentle, turn, climb or descent. The wingman should be able to pick up on these normal maneuvers without hand signals if he's paying the proper amount of attention, and the leader is flying smoothly and consistently. It's when the leader does something really unexpected, changes his mind or decides to do something on the spur of the moment that the wingman is in trouble.

A good flight lead will conduct a thorough briefing before the flight, and be sure that everyone knows what they're supposed to do and when they're supposed to do it. It's here that the wingman should ask all the questions he needs to in order to understand just what is expected of him. The bigger the formation and the more elaborate the maneuver intended, in general, the longer this briefing is going to last, and there must be time for questions and answers. That's not to say that the plan cannot change once airborne, but if it must, it should be in the direction of simplicity, and the leader should use his radio to confirm that his flight is aware of the changes. Also during this briefing, the leader should review the hand signals he plans to use, and in what circumstances he'll use them. I know everyone's supposed to know the "standard" hand signals from the T-34 manual, but I think it's a really good idea to go over them before a flight if you're going to use them, just to be sure every is up to speed and read the same book. This hand signal review should include those used on the ground before take-off. The briefing should also cover winds, abort and safety procedures, and provide the wingmen with the proper radio frequencies necessary should they have to leave the formation.

The leader should not use full power if the flight is performing a section take-off. This should be obvious, but I have tried to fly with a leader I couldn't catch. I don't think a good flight leader will ask his flight to perform section landings, either. This is particularly true when flying tailwheel aircraft. There's just too many things that can go wrong. Section take-offs are iffy enough.

A good leader will be sure each member of his flight is in position before leaving the join-up circle. As a habitual #4 I can tell you it's very frustrating to be just lining up after #3 overshot, then took forever to get into position, and have the formation turn away and leave you because the air boss said to hurry up.

Again with the obvious. The leader must spot the wingmen some throttle. If I can't catch the leader, the formation isn't going to look very good, and I'm not going to break my engine just to make a formation look good. The hot dog and Coke ain't worth it.

A good leader will use his radio to communicate with the flight if the situation requires it. A lot of radio chatter is a bad thing, but a couple of timely instructions over the radio can save a flight that's about to fall apart or bring clarity to a confused wingman.

A good leader, must always fly with his wingmen in mind. Every text that was ever written about formation flying points this out, but I have had several leaders try to stack me down then fly a LOW low pass, (a simple move to stack the flight up would have solved the problem). I've had leaders try to turn into a 4 plane echelon at 100 kts, (I've not yet learned to hover a T-6) I've had leaders break into me (thank goodness they pulled as they turned), and even a little thing like letting me fly on the sunward side if possible so I don't go blind makes a difference. I don't appreciate steep banked turns into me, I don't appreciate a sudden pitch down and rapid reduction (or increase) of power at the beginning of a pass. In fact, anything that happens suddenly and isn't done either to avoid an accident or because of one is not appreciated.

So maybe I'm a whiner, but the best formation leaders I've flown with have never made me work overly hard. They think ahead so I don't have to be Joe Hotstick to keep up with them.

I guess that really sums up what it takes to be a good leader in a nutshell. The good leader ALWAYS considers the needs of the rest of his flight. He puts that before the requests (or orders, depending on who/where you are) of the air boss, before his desire for the flight to look good, and never does ANYTHING that will put an individual aircraft or the flight as a whole in physical danger. I'm going to do my best to be a "good" wingman, which to me means fly my airplane in the correct position at all times and do what I'm told, but I want to have confidence that I won't have to break out of the formation because the leader does something stupid, or that he won't fly me into an unsafe situation.