Saturday, July 11, 2009

Formation Flight Training

Let me start out by making the statement that the Club I fly in does not allow formation flying of any kind, with or without training. No ifs ands or buts not allowed. Ok, the housekeeping is complete now let me tell you about my morning.

I got up later then planned so I decided to Drive to WINGS Field (KLOM) in Blue Bell, PA. The airport is tucked in between I-276 the Pennsylvania turnpike to it's south, I-476 to its West and RT 73 Skippack Pike to the North and East. Normally this would be a 15 minute flight with at least 45 minutes of ground prep since I'm moving a bit slower these days. The drive was less then 45 minutes with no traffic to speak of, ok, besides the occasional nut ticket dodging and weaving through cars thinking he is going to get up the road so much faster then the rest of us mere mortals......jackass.

The formation flight training program has been the cornerstone of success for the previous Cessna mass arrivals and that of other organizations into Oshkosh. The hallmark of formation flight training is the formation training clinic. Practice is the perfect complement. Cessnas 2 Oshkosh schedules formation flight training clinics between the month of March and the day before the mass arrival. The last training clinic before the mass arrival will be the Juneau Clinic at the KUNU, Dodge County Airport in Juneau, Wisconsin.

The "textbook" of the formation flight training clinics is the slide presentation by Rodney Swanson, the Director of Training and Operations. The Cessnas to Oshkosh group encourages every participating pilot to review this presentation prior to attending the formation training clinic of your choice. The designated instructor will go over the presentation in detail at the opening of each formation training clinic before practice. The instructor for today's clinic was fellow North East Flyers member Gil Velez (TeenDoc on the POA forum). Gil did a great job and provided an interesting program. As I said from the top, I can not fly formation in our club plane but.......once Mary and I become owners we can take part in some formation flying with friends.

A fun morning learning something new about flying, I'm a happy camper!

3 comments:

Steve said...

Formation flying is something I'd LOVE to do. Sounds like you had a great opportunity to learn more about it.

You should just move to Dayton, I'd do in on a plane with you! ;-)

Seriously, I can't wait till I can own my own either...

Gary said...

LOL....Let's see someone asked us to move to KLOM now Dayton....I'm still thinking Mary wants to be close to a beach. :) I just want an airport.

The clinic was great but I didn't fly in, besides no formation flying in the club Archer.

Steve said...

True, but it's still good knowledge. Would be cool to attend for that reason alone.

Sure, Dayton's not that exciting and we're not near the cool beaches I miss up in Michigan... hmm, yea I guess I see your point. ;-)