Typical day

[USMC-SSGT]

Beautiful New England day

While in the runup area our chief pilot (retired F4 and Fed Ex) called me on ground and asked if we wanted to be a flight of 2, We have done this before and I figured it would be a great experience for my student.

This photo is on the climbout at about 90kts so he wouldnt be too slow picture taken with a run of the mill iphone camera

and no this is not dangerous he obviously has formation experience with 20 years in fighters and I have been trained as well while flying acro with him

 

[astrowhip]

Nice pic. Was this on Wednesday?

 

[SteveC]

and no this is not dangerous he obviously has formation experience with 20 years in fighters and I have been trained as well while flying acro with him

Good. The formation flight was fully briefed too, I presume.

 

[USMC-SSGT]

in a sense it was

I typically fly lead and t/o first. once in the air we change to company freq and coordinate the details. In straight ahead flight there is little to coordinate besides speeds and such. When he wants to pass under to switch wings we coordiate that via company freq. We constantly call out speeds and headings.

Have I appeased the JC Gods?

 

[surreal1221]

Kick Ass!

 

[Crockrocket94]

Thats awesome, what is he flying? some sort of Pitts?

 

[USMC-SSGT]

Thats awesome, what is he flying? some sort of Pitts?

It was Wednesday and I know it is a Pitts S1 and I think it is either a T or C

 

[SteveC]

in a sense it was

I typically fly lead and t/o first. once in the air we change to company freq and coordinate the details. In straight ahead flight there is little to coordinate besides speeds and such. When he wants to pass under to switch wings we coordiate that via company freq. We constantly call out speeds and headings.

Have I appeased the JC Gods?

If you're talking about me, I'm not a JC God. I don't even have an Inner Circle Secret Decoder Ring yet.

I'm not a formation flying guru so have no basis to judge if your preparations were good or not. All I know is what I've read the experts here (and elsewhere) say, and two of the things that they stress is training; and being fully briefed on who is going to do what in certain situations. What constitutes *training* and *fully briefed* is beyond me. I just play the devil's advocate...and try to make friends (often appears to be mutually exclusive activities though).