Formation Flight Clinics and Events
Typical Clinic Schedule
The typical clinic follows the schedule outlined below. All clinic participants will receive several e-mails with the exact schedule for the event they are signed up for.
Friday
| Start | End | Activity |
|---|---|---|
| ---- | 1300 | Arrival |
| 1400 | 1500 | Four ship demonstration flight |
| 1600 | 2000 | Presentation and discussion on formation flying. (Dinner typically brought in) |
Saturday
| Start | End | Activity |
|---|---|---|
| 0830 | 1000 | 1st Practice Flight |
| 1000 | 1130 | 2nd Practice Flight |
| 1130 | 1300 | Lunch |
| 1300 | 1430 | 3rd Practice Flight |
| 1430 | 1600 | 4th Practice Flight |
| 1600 | Dinner (Typically the whole group) |
Sunday
| Start | End | Activity |
|---|---|---|
| 0830 | 1000 | Four ship flight (if ready) |
| 0030 | 1200 | Four ship flight |
| 1300 | ---- | Departure |
Preparing for a Clinic
Prerequisite Reading
- Please read pages 1-28 and 35-40 of the Redstar Formation Manual.
- Review the C2A Ground School and Reference Guide
- Review the items in the the C2A Standard Operating Procedures.
Airplane Prep
- Arrive with fuel to carry at least 600lbs. A good guide is about 40-50 gallons. If you can carry 3 people, it may assist in training and carrying photographers or JAFOs.
- We strongly recommend you not perform any major maintenance to your aircraft right before a clinic. If you must, please consult the clinic organizer to discuss options.
- Give your plane a good bath - you might just get some great photos. At a minimum, clean your windows inside and out to facilitate formation flying.
Pilot Preparation
- Spend some time hand flying, get your stick and rudder skills sharp.
- Practice your rudder skills (in level flight, slide the plane to the left and right while keeping your wings level). You will use this often while learning station keeping.
- If you have access to a larger runway, take off and land on one side of the runway with the center line being an imaginary concrete barrier.
- Exercise your muscle memory of the location of the flap lever and fuel switch lever (do it without looking).
- Practice anchoring your throttle hand on the console to make many small adjustments to power settings (may need to loosen throttle tension).
Local Practice Fly-in Events
Local Events are also available to build your formation flying skills and keep the "rust" off. Practice fly-ins are typically single day events hosted by a pilot with formation flying experience. Clicking on a red marker on the map will take you to a page that has details for a fly-in event.
Pilots participating in practice fly-ins without a Safety Pilot must have attended a Formation Clinic and self assessed to fly solo. If in doubt, contact one of the C2A leaders to verify. Pilots trained by other type clinics are welcome provided that they meet C2A's requirements to fly solo.
If you would like to organize a practice fly-in event, contact Will Garber, Ron Backnick, or Mike Radomsky. Any of them can walk you through the preparation you will need to do and set you up to add your fly-in to the web site.