(^48) Reach for the sky
aircraft drop slowly.”
In effect, although your hands are on
the controls of only one aeroplane, you’re
flying each aeroplane in the formation.
You will control their airspeed, their rate of
descent, their height above ground, their
rate of turn and their direction. They
have eyes only for you; you have
to be their eyes on the world.
Getting down
Landing in formation behind a leader
is one of the hardest things you will
ever have to do in an aeroplane. On
approach you will not make calls, you
will not turn when the threshold is 45o
behind you, you will not watch your
aim point on base ... you probably won’t
even see the airport! Your eyes are still
on the leader and you have to trust that
they will have you in the right place at
the right height at the right speed.
A good leader will make sure the
runway is wide enough to take the
formation, or order a streaming landing
in line astern. They will also land well
into the runway, leaving plenty of room
for the trailing planes to get down
behind them. If they try to bullseye the
piano keys, the rest of the formation
won’t make the runway.
My first attempt at landing in echelon
right was, if you will permit me to say,
pretty damned good. We held the
formation until we were about two
thirds of the way down final when Craig
encouraged me to forget the leader now,
and transfer my eyes to the threshold.
Keeping the mango-coloured CT4 in my
peripheral I checked all the clocks and
found Michelle had done a great job in
positioning me on final. All there was
left to do was land the plane.
Practice and other
mistakes
With most of the principles outlined
on the first flight, the rest of the
endorsement was a case of fly, fly, fly. It’s
easy to know; it’s harder to do, and my
flying calendar for the next few weeks
was booked up with formation dates to
convert theory into skill.
The most important skill to develop,
I would find, is the ability to accurately
anticipate the move the leader calls.
For instance, when calling a turn, the
leader will transmit something like:
“Mango formation, right turn in
three ... two ... one ... Go!”
If you’re in echelon left, you’ll be on
the outside of the turn, and unless you
power up and go high you’ll soon be
watching the others from a distance.
The trick is to power up on the “two”
count so the donk is already on song
when the turn starts. Conversely, if
you’re in echelon right, you’ll be on
the inside of the turn and will have to
power off and go low. It takes only a
moment’s tardiness to have to battle
your way back to the sweet spot again.
AUSTRALIAN FLYING March – April 2015
ABOVE: When you’re
trailing, your eyes are
glued to the leader.
You have to trust they
will put you in the right
spot in the sky.
OPPOSITE PAGE:
About there! Murray
shows Michelle how to
line-up the lead plane’s
wheels when you’re in
echelon left.
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