it can indeed be a low bar to satisfy, for the FAA. Look at the B-17 crash in Connecticut, with paying passengers too. Had a “Flight Engineer” onboard who didn’t even possess so much as an FE-Recip certificate. Possessed nothing, yet acting in that capacity. Warbird crash after warbird crash, most often flown by someone with lots of money and no experience. Had one right here in Chandler years ago. Managed to put a Mustang into the side of a hangar on a go around and mort himself and his airplane. Even some high time airline pilot, the flying type doesn’t translate over to single seat high performance planes, if not coming from that background.
To this day, I won’t fly formation flights with anyone not specifically mil trained in form with high performance aircraft. Whether close formation or tactical formation. If someone doesn’t have the knowledge, training, experience, and SA for 100% of what formation flying calls for, then it’s a no go. Whether it’s basic form consisting of position, pitchouts, rejoins, cross unders (cross overs if helicopter), etc; the pilot better understand the roles, responsibilities and operations of every formation position they are going to be involved in, whether leader or wingman. And that doesn’t even get into formation takeoffs, approaches, and landings, which are their own set of knowledge, skills, abilities and SA that need to be learned, understood, and executed 100%, 100% of the time; in order to avoid getting aircraft broken and people killed.
Formation flying is not a gaggle-frack of airplanes going the same way, on the same day. It is far, far more than that. A fact many pilots not fully trained in it, don’t understand the full gravity of.
At the end of the day, the P-63 Is at fault. The question will be what factors led up to that, as in where did the pilot of the P-63 lose SA on the B-17, assuming he ever had it in the first place, and if so, why was it not corrected or regained?. If the B-17 disappeared into the large blind spot under/forward of the P-63 nose, why wasn’t that immediately corrected/regained/avoided? This was standard VMC Mk1 eyeball see and avoid, and clear your own flight path, in terms of primary factors. Sure, there are limitations to see and avoid…..namely for unplanned aircraft that are not part of your flight; it shouldn’t be an issue nor a surprise for aircraft you are flying with/around, who are part of your activity and that one should already be aware of SA-wise. Any internal comms should hopefully shed some more light on this.
it’s a stroke of luck that there were no paying passengers onboard and that this happened to be a display flight where passengers aren’t carried, and that the aircraft wreckage impacted in the infield grass inside the airport boundaries and didn’t injure or kill anyone on the ground.
