As we enter the summer fun flying season, there might be a time when someone suggests you try some spur-of-the-moment formation flying. On a VFR trip, flying within loose sight range of a friend or two can be fun. But any closer than that isn’t smart without formal training and practice — for all the participants. Stick to the ‘same direction — same day’ format and leave the overlapping wingtip stuff to those who have the training, and recent experience.
I went along on such a formation fly-over this past weekend. The event was to honor a new veterans memorial in Hopewell, New Jersey, and I was flying with Doug Hulse and Andrew Swart of the Trojan Horsemen T-28 Warbird Demo Team. I met Doug for breakfast at his home airport and flew with him in the back of his T-28 to Trenton-Mercer Airport to meet up with Swart and brief the mission. Swart’s passenger on the mission was Wolcott Blair, general manager of Ronson Aviation and — coincidentally — a member of my men’s-league hockey team. Hulse and Swart, who volunteered their services and expenses for the mission, are highly experienced civilian formation pilots; and that’s really the point of this week’s tip. If you don’t have the training, formation flying is about as dangerous as flying with a spinning propeller just a few feet away from your tail feathers. If you have the training, it’s still dangerous — but you can do it perfectly safely as long as you follow the rules. And it’s really cool.
