Formation Flying "Leading" part 2

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Formation Flying "Leading" part 2

Postby 100th_Alien on Fri May 12, 2006 10:36 pm

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100th_Alien leading Flight of 4 P51 REDTAILS escorting B29's


Want to meet the pilot singularly responsible for the success or failure of a formation? Look no further than the formation leader. Good pilots may be able to hold a formation together when following a poor leader, rare but possible. But a good leader can take poor pilots around the map in good order.

How does a good leader do this? Communication, planning, knowing the limits of those he leads.

Communication.
The leader MUST communicate his intentions to his pilots with enough lead time for them to prepare for the next maneuver or action. He can not sit there and announce ‘Uh, guys we need to come left 30 degrees’. An action like that is guaranteed to spread his formation over a couple of miles.

He has to make sure everyone is sitting at their computer and not off attending some real life issue (kitchen, bathroom, wife, kids, salesman, etc). Requesting a quick ‘cc’ from everyone will let him know who is absent.
Now that he has everyone’s attention, he can tell them what he wants them to do. Heading, power, altitude changes and how he wants them to do the change.
Finally he calls for the execution of the change.

He should give periodic status reports of the formation heading, altitude, power setting and speed. These help anyone out of position to speed their rejoining of the formation.

He may give help to anyone having trouble keeping up or maintaining their formation position. Whether he does this on a private channel or a general channel is up to the leader and his available communications options.

The leader is the pilot responsible for coordination with other formations. Bombers and their escorts is the most common type coordination but fighter to fighter or bomber to bomber are frequent as well.

The best communications are handled over voice coms. This system may be internal to your game or via an external coms program.
The text communication channels are always available and commands should always be given over these. This eliminates most language problems or those with an accent you just cant make out on voice systems.

Planning.
There is no point in planning an elaborate mission when you do not have pilots with the skills to carry it off. This is especially true for the bomber community. The fighter community as a bit more flexibility as they are less constrained in keeping the entire formation intact to be functional.

The first act of planning is making sure all pilots are at the same field, have the same aircraft/load-out and understand what they are going to do. Understand there will always be 1 or 2 pilots that are out of the loop somehow.

The bomber community has to consider many things the fighters never address. The most critical point in a bomber formation is getting every pilot to a point that gives the formation a straight path to the target. This point must be far enough away that it gives stragglers time to rejoin the main group and give everyone enough time to stabilize their bomb aiming equipment. Naturally, this line should maximize the number of targets that can be hit in one pass by the group.

Common leadership points.
Never set the formation throttle level to the max. Always give your pilots a maneuvering reserve to help them stay in formation. 80% of max power is a good base. Climb rates will be slower, plan accordingly. The base power can be raised if the formation is not making any heading changes for a while AND everyone is stable in their formation position.

Get confirmations from all pilots before making radical changes. This is not real life and you must take into account someone dealing with an issue at home and not actively ‘flying.’

Give commands over your text channels. This minimizes confusion from garbled voice commands.

Give periodic formation status reports if you have stragglers.

Detail 1 or 2 pilots to back you up. Example; You want level out of a climb when you reach 20K. Tell your #1 wingman to warn you 5k before you reach 20K. That way you have a backup. You can do this for navigation events as well.

Keep 90 degree turns to a minimum for formations with new pilots. Three 30 degree heading changes may be easer on formation integrity than that one large turn.

Be a teacher, try to give tips when you can. This will eventually create a base of formation trained pilots that can fly with the best.

Finally, lead by example. When you make heading changes, NAIL the new heading. Do not spend minutes ‘hunting’ for it. If you want a specific altitude, hit it. The longer you bob and weave trying to get yourself settled the longer the rest of the formation is left hanging for a stable point to fly off of.

There is nothing like the feeling when it all ‘comes together’ and THAT is makes it all worth the effort.

Never forget, it is the pilots of your formation that make YOU look good.



Next lesson...Formation Flying ... "Manuevering" part 3

Produced by "crutch"
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"The four elements: earth, air, water, and fire. Of these, I call your attention to two: air and fire. As pilots we live in the air, but we die by fire."
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100th_Alien
Flight Sergeant
 
Posts: 77
Joined: Sat Feb 04, 2006 9:36 pm
Location: Xemu Xeno

Short story

Postby 100th_Alien on Fri May 12, 2006 10:56 pm

back when I first started my career as an arm chair pilot, I formed a Heavy Bombardment group called the 490th BG =OUTLAWZ= on the sim "Warbirds" I also formed the 332nd FG REDTAILS which by 1 years end I had recruited 40 plus players. Since Most of the us relized the difference with IL and Warbirds we left and I passed the helm of the 332nd to others.
That is where we learned our formation flying and the importance of it. Now that we fly 3 times the better sim I would like to share my knowlede and learning on to newcomers.

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490th BG "warbirds 2005"
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"The four elements: earth, air, water, and fire. Of these, I call your attention to two: air and fire. As pilots we live in the air, but we die by fire."
User avatar
100th_Alien
Flight Sergeant
 
Posts: 77
Joined: Sat Feb 04, 2006 9:36 pm
Location: Xemu Xeno


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