Formation flying

[Paul Sengupta]

Hi,

For those that know me (and for those who don't if you're interested!)
here are some photos that my friend Ed took from the passenger seat
of the lead aircraft of my plane during the formation flying course I did
weekend before last. The third along on the top line shows the distance
I was away from the other plane for most of the time.

Some photos of joining, breaking, and when the no.1 aircraft became
no.2 for some line astern practise.

http://www.eddaniel.com/xx638/

Paul

[EDR]

In article >, Paul Sengupta
> wrote:

> http://www.eddaniel.com/xx638/

What type aircraft is that black/yellow one?

[Dave]

What references were you using? I'm not trying to be funny but you seem to
be rather a long way apart - it may be a camera issue. Typical refs for a
Bulldog are flap/aileron junction (or wingtip) on spinner, looking straight
down elevator hinge (or tailplane tip on strobe) and equal upper/lower wing
surfaces.

Dave S

"Paul Sengupta" > wrote in message
...
> Hi,
>
> For those that know me (and for those who don't if you're interested!)
> here are some photos that my friend Ed took from the passenger seat
> of the lead aircraft of my plane during the formation flying course I did
> weekend before last. The third along on the top line shows the distance
> I was away from the other plane for most of the time.
>
> Some photos of joining, breaking, and when the no.1 aircraft became
> no.2 for some line astern practise.
>
> http://www.eddaniel.com/xx638/
>
> Paul
>
>

[Paul Sengupta]

"Dave" > wrote in message
...
> What references were you using? I'm not trying to be funny but you seem to
> be rather a long way apart - it may be a camera issue. Typical refs for a
> Bulldog are flap/aileron junction (or wingtip) on spinner, looking
straight
> down elevator hinge (or tailplane tip on strobe) and equal upper/lower
wing
> surfaces.

Them's the ones.

Most of the photos are taken while I was a bit further out.
The third from the left on the top row is about in the right
position, at least that's where I was comfortable! :-) I may
have been closer on occasion, hard to tell from the different
angle. It was only my second lesson...

Do you fancy coming up for some practice sometime? You're
not involved with this Beagle Pup & Bulldog Club formation I
take it?

Paul

[Paul Sengupta]

"EDR" > wrote in message
...
> In article >, Paul Sengupta
> > wrote:
>
> > http://www.eddaniel.com/xx638/
>
> What type aircraft is that black/yellow one?

It's a Scottish Aviation Bulldog. The military version of the
Beagle Pup.

http://www.warbirdalley.com/bulldog.htm

The colour scheme is unique, designed for airshow use when
it was still with the RAF. Airfix make a model of it! :-)

I bought it off the RAF about 3 years ago.

The more common colour scheme is the red/white scheme
which the no.1 aircraft has.

Paul

[Dave]

"Paul Sengupta" > wrote in message
...
> "Dave" > wrote in message
> ...
> > What references were you using? I'm not trying to be funny but you seem
to
> > be rather a long way apart - it may be a camera issue. Typical refs for
a
> > Bulldog are flap/aileron junction (or wingtip) on spinner, looking
> straight
> > down elevator hinge (or tailplane tip on strobe) and equal upper/lower
> wing
> > surfaces.
>
> Them's the ones.
>
> Most of the photos are taken while I was a bit further out.
> The third from the left on the top row is about in the right
> position, at least that's where I was comfortable! :-) I may
> have been closer on occasion, hard to tell from the different
> angle. It was only my second lesson...
>
> Do you fancy coming up for some practice sometime? You're
> not involved with this Beagle Pup & Bulldog Club formation I
> take it?
>
> Paul
>
Paul, I'll send you an email.

Dave S

[Michael]

"Paul Sengupta" > wrote
> For those that know me (and for those who don't if you're interested!)
> here are some photos that my friend Ed took from the passenger seat
> of the lead aircraft of my plane during the formation flying course I did
> weekend before last. The third along on the top line shows the distance
> I was away from the other plane for most of the time.

Nice photos. Formation flying is a blast and it's really a shame more
people don't do it. You can do it in any airplane (unlike aerobatics)
and it breeds a certain precision in your flying because you must fly
relative to another object, something most pilots do for only a few
seconds at a time as they land.

Here are some that my friend's wife took from the back seat of his
Baron as we did some formation work out over the Gulf of Mexico.

http://www.thisoldairplane.com/photos

This one gives a pretty good feel for our relative position when we
tucked it in.

http://www.thisoldairplane.com/photos/640x480/107_0716.jpg

You can see all the oil and exhaust stains on my belly in this one,
taken as we did a formation break to the left.

http://www.thisoldairplane.com/photos/640x480/107_0724.jpg

Michael

[Dylan Smith]

In article >, Michael wrote:
> Nice photos. Formation flying is a blast and it's really a shame more
> people don't do it. You can do it in any airplane (unlike aerobatics)
> and it breeds a certain precision in your flying because you must fly
> relative to another object, something most pilots do for only a few
> seconds at a time as they land.

Three of us flew from Houston to OSH in formation (in two aircraft, a
C170 and C140) a couple of years ago. It takes some concentration doing
that on a long cross country :-)

The most mismatched formation I've flown in was a flight of four - a
C140, a Grumman Tiger, a C170 and a...Bonanza! The C140 was going
flat-out, the Bonanza had full flaps (but gear up). Fortunately, that
was only a 30nm trip. It gets expensive flying a Bonanza that slowly on
Hobbs time.

--
Dylan Smith, Castletown, Isle of Man
Flying: http://www.dylansmith.net
Frontier Elite Universe: http://www.alioth.net
"Maintain thine airspeed, lest the ground come up and smite thee"

[Orval Fairbairn]

In article >,
"Paul Sengupta" > wrote:

> Hi,
>
> For those that know me (and for those who don't if you're interested!)
> here are some photos that my friend Ed took from the passenger seat
> of the lead aircraft of my plane during the formation flying course I did
> weekend before last. The third along on the top line shows the distance
> I was away from the other plane for most of the time.
>
> Some photos of joining, breaking, and when the no.1 aircraft became
> no.2 for some line astern practise.
>
> http://www.eddaniel.com/xx638/
>
> Paul
>
>

Paul,

All the formation books here in the US admonish against overtaking the
lead ship, unless lead calls for a lead change. The camera always makes
the object plane appear farther away, even when your wingtip is in the
other guy's lap. The Bulldog looks like a fun aircraft and should be a
pleasure to fly in formation.

Yes, you CAN fly just about anything in formation, but some things make
it harder (vernier throttles, multi-engines, heavy controls,
non-harmonized controls, dissimilar aircraft performance, to name a few).

[Paul Sengupta]

"Orval Fairbairn" > wrote in message
...
> All the formation books here in the US admonish against overtaking the
> lead ship, unless lead calls for a lead change.

We swapped formation lead a couple of times for the other guy
to get a bit of practise...he also gave my friend Ed the controls
to try line astern...though Ed hasn't flown at all for about 5 years!
:-)

> The Bulldog looks like a fun aircraft and should be a
> pleasure to fly in formation.

Indeed! It spent over 25 years teaching it to RAF students, so it
can't be bad! In fact it's one of the better piston singles to fly in
formation...fair amount of power, fair amount of drag!

Paul

[Dylan Smith]

In article >, Paul Sengupta wrote:
> Indeed! It spent over 25 years teaching it to RAF students, so it
> can't be bad! In fact it's one of the better piston singles to fly in
> formation...fair amount of power, fair amount of drag!

The easiest plane I've found to fly in formation was the Bellanca Super
Decathalon just for those reasons - easy to make adjustments with lots
of power and drag :-)

--
Dylan Smith, Castletown, Isle of Man
Flying: http://www.dylansmith.net
Frontier Elite Universe: http://www.alioth.net
"Maintain thine airspeed, lest the ground come up and smite thee"