There are always a lot of questions about formation flying. We have captured the most frequently asked questions in the sections below. If, after looking through these, you still have questions feel free to contact us. You might just have the perfect question to add below.]
Easy, it's fun. If you have never flown close formation you are in for an experience. Everyone who participates will enhance their flying skills and learn more about their aircraft. Safety and camaraderie are our goal. You will absolutely leave a much better stick and rudder pilot!
We do not provide any type of certification. Our Safety Pilots are there to assist, you will be the PIC. You will self-assess your skills at the end of each formation flight and determine when you are ready to fly solo.
Absolutely. We call them JAFO's (Just Another 'Fun' Observer). There is a smaller fee for non-flying participants to help cover food/transportation etc. It's a great opportunity to get some good photo's and get some exposure to formation flying.
No problem with dissimilar aircraft. Almost every clinic has a mix of SR-20, SR-22, SR-22T, SR-22TN. On a few occasions, we have Mooneys and other aircraft participate.
We offer refunds up to 2 weeks before a clinic. If for some reason you have to cancel inside that window, we will apply your registration to a future clinic
If the weather is not conducive to formation flying, we will reschedule the clinic. We normally make the weather call about 3-4 days out, allowing refunds of hotel reservations etc. We will coordinate with all participants on the rescheduled date.
Trust us, nobody has the skill to fly formation on their first day. We don't expect you to fly perfect the first day. Even the most seasoned instructor pilots will require a safety pilot. Every skill level is welcomed. You will have the opportunity to see each maneuver demonstrated first. If required, your Safety Pilot can provide as many demonstrations as you desire. After your second or third flight the skills will sink in and you will start to fly with confidence. Everyone exclaims how challenging it is on day one, then how satisfying it is on flight number 5 as the skills mature.
No prerequisites. We will query the participants for experience level just to mitigate risk as we pair you with Safety Pilots.
Yes, two people can attend a clinic with one aircraft. We often pair two new students with one safety pilot. We will rotate who flies in the front and who sits in the back to observe. You can learn a lot while observing from the back seat (less stress, so you can absorb more).
The registration fee pays mainly for Safety Pilot transportation and half their hotel fee. We often fly Safety Pilots commercial to support a clinic. We also provide transportation (rental vehicles) and on occasion have to pay for briefing rooms. We do our best to keep costs minimal, and Safety Pilots usually pay a lot of expenses out of pocket.
Our primary goal is to SAFELY conduct formation flights. Any flight will be scrubbed or aborted if it cannot be conducted safely. To assist in decision making, our Safety Committee has determined a set of "minimums" that must be met in order to conduct formation flights. These "minumums" take into account ceilings, visibility, winds, the size of the formation, along with other factors. You will be indoctrinated to these "minimums" during any clinic you attend.
In addition, each pilot and safety is expected to conduct their own personal assessment and remove themselves from any flight if necessary. We comletely understand that we are all humans and get tired sometimes don't feel like we can perform at 100%.
This privacy notice discloses the privacy practices for this web site. This privacy notice applies solely to information collected by this website.
We are the sole owners of the information on this site. We only have access to/collect information that you voluntarily give us. We will not sell or rent this information to anyone.
We will use your information to respond to you, regarding the reason you contacted us. If you are a registered user and opt-in for notifications, we may contact you via email to tell you about formation flying events, information related to formation flying, or changes to this privacy policy.
If you are a registered user of the site, you can do the following at any time by changing your the information in your user preferences or contacting us:
We take precautions to protect your information. When you submit sensitive or personally identifying information via the website, your information is protected both online and offline.
We use encryption to protect all information transmitted online, we also protect your information offline. Only site administrators who need the information to perform a specific job are granted access to personally identifiable information. The computers/servers in which we store personally identifiable information are kept in a secure environment.
Only you have access to your site password, if registered. Site Administrators cannot view or change your password. You may change your password using the Lost Password link on the login page. Any password change will be confirmed with an e-mail message.
We use "cookies" on this site. A cookie is a piece of data stored on a site visitor's hard drive to help us improve your access to our site. For instance, after a registered user logs in, we use a cookie to highlight information you have indicated you wish to know, e.g. nearby formation flight practice sessions. Our cookies contain no personally identifiable information.
We do not share cookies with any third-parties; nor do we honor third-party cookies on our site from third-parties.
If you feel we are not abiding by this privacy policy, you should contact us immediately using the Email us link found under the Contact menu.
We test with a variety of browsers and try to insure that all of the features on our site work with them, including
Microsoft Internet Explorer (through IE 11) is known not to work on all pages. We suggest you upgrade to Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge on Windows.
Web broswers are a moving target. If you encounter an issue please send a message to us at Webmaster. If you can include a screen shot of what didn't work along with the name of the browser and it's version that would be wonderful.