Ron Lee

Ron Lee

Well Known Member
Specifically, should every plane call FINAL and clear of active?

Should each plane land near the center of the runway and move to the departure (exit to taxiway) side when safe to do so thus allowing room for an overtaking RV from behind to safely pass by?

Assuming non-elite flight experience pilots, I am assuming reasonable separation between landing aircraft. Closer than FAA standards but not side by side closeness.

Any other comments?
 
Ron, there is a full formation clinic Oct. 12-14 in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. All your questions would be answered, and more :).
 
To second Scott's advice, please go find a formation clinic nearby (or not-so-nearby) and spend a day learning. It's an amazing amount of fun, and all of this will be answered.

In brief, how you land will depend on a number of things, but most importantly, on what you decided you would do before you left the ground. Other factors are the width of the runway, the length of the runway, and the experience level of the pilots involved.

Our local procedure is to land on the centerline with a two second spacing, and then move to the exit side of the runway as soon as you're established on the ground. This is common when the expected exit point is part-way along a runway.

As for radio calls, at a controlled airport generally only lead talks to the controller, even after your break for landing. At uncontrolled airports, until the break only lead talks, after the break each plane calls position (#2 base, #2 final). Again, that's our local procedure, I don't recall if it matches the TeamRV syllabus.

For more information, look into one of these organizations and try to find a group to fly with near you... There's great reading material on both the FAST and TeamRV sites, but all the reading in the world is no substitute for hands-on training with someone who knows what they're doing.

FAST - Formation And Safety Team (check out "Documents")
TeamRV - Team RV formation documents
Red Star - Red Star Pilots Association - oriented towards Yaks and Nanchangs, but Nanchangs and RV's fly formation quite well together.
SFC - Swift Formation Committee - Swifts also fly formation with RV's quite well, if they have larger engines or if the RV's throttle back a tad.
 
Depends on location.

If the Flight of RV's is at a uncontrolled field, I say break up the spacing as you get closer to the field and do a normal pattern like everyone else.
 
I would say it is runway dependent. In the T45, we normally would land on opposite sides of the runway to maintain separation. However, due to the risks involved with a swerve on touchdown due to a NWS issue or blown tire, we now land on centerline and then move over after aircraft deceleration is under control.

I know we are talking about RV's here, so I would say it depends on a few factors:
1. Runway width and condition
2. Amount of nose to tail separation between aircraft
3. Crosswinds
4. Pilot experience level
5. What you briefed

I don't think there is necessarily a wrong or right answer as long as you can justify your decision based on the above.

As for radio calls: we normally match leads radio call in the pattern, and then lead waits for us once clear of the active and calls for taxi back as a section.
 
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