Formation with a Zenith 701 (!!!) and a couple 172s last night

Yesterday evening, during a gorgeous Puget Sound sunset, Allen and I took off in our RV-6A (him doing the flying and me taking pictures) to meet up with some friends of ours who had just gone flying in two 172s. None of us have formal formation training (well, one of the 172 guys had done a couple workshops, and all of us had flown with one other airplane a couple times... I will start training hopefully very soon), so we just stayed a safe distance apart, did not go anywhere without first announcing it over the radio, and had two pilots per airplane keeping an eye on all the other airplanes.

Since you guys liked my Sonoma pictures, you may enjoy these:



As we took off, I snapped this shot of the first 787-9 (about 10% bigger than the original 787, with all kinds of minor improvements). I spent three years dealing with a variety of structural durability issues on this airplane, and I can't wait to see it fly! The engines were turned on for the first time just a few days ago.



Mount Rainier on the left, Paine Field on the right, and downtown Seattle a little further away. Perfect clear day to go flying! Smooth, too.



Balloons taking off from Harvey Field. (Or is it Monroe? I always get the two mixed up).



Some unfriendly-looking weather to the east.



The low sun made some shots tricky...



... but even when the airplane is a black silhouette, cool pictures are possible.



Look at where we live! It's like Switzerland over here.



It started out as Allen and I in our RV-6 (Allen doing the flying, me taking pictures) chasing these two 172s.



Interestingly, of the six total occupants in the three airplanes, five are experienced photographers with bags full of SLRs and lenses, including the two guys in this 172. Lots of gorgeous shots going up on Facebook right now. The Facebook pages of the guys in this Cessna: Pilot, and passenger (also a pilot).



The two photographers in the 172 have a friend who happened to be in the air at the time we all went up. As we flew past his home airport, they got in touch over the radio, and we picked a nearby lake as a rendezvous point. We were all scanning the sky and I was the first one to spot him. "Is that a Zenith?", I asked, knowing that the maximum speed that this STOL bushplane can reach is probably within the flap-speed white-arc of the RV-6...

But no worries. Allen had no trouble forming up on the Zenith. I then recognized it from lots of Facebook pictures and Youtube videos. The builder and owner has camera mounts all over the airplane and is understandably proud of the super short takeoffs and landings that he can accomplish in this rugged machine he has built.



Gotta love golden-hour light...



Zenith flying into the sunset :]



This picture got a ton of likes and shares on Facebook. Even Zenith (the manufacturer) shared it.



Zenith, Cessna, and RV. Pretty dissimilar formation, as far as single-engine airplanes go.



Just another sunset over the Puget Sound!



Tricky flying and tricky exposure, but we pulled it off!



We didn't get a whole lot closer than this, since we don't have formal formation training. Occasionally one airplane would get close to one other airplane (as you can see in the photos of the Zenith just off my right wing), but the whole group of three or four did not all get close. It was more "flying together" than "formation", really. But you gotta start somewhere. (And I do want to start taking formal training in formation soon).



Allen holding his spot in the formation.



When the sun set, one Cessna had to go back home, but the rest of us are night-current and stayed out until it was time to start cranking up the ISO. Not long after these last couple of shots, it was too dark to get decent pictures, and we went home. Much fun was had by all.