And your point is? True, the norm was a 4-ship, but we always looked forward to the mass attack scenarios or the occasional large flyover for special events. Same for the RV formations around the country. We normally practice in 4-ships to keep all the skills current, but practice large formations at various clinics and airshows keeping practiced for the large formations at Oshkosh, Sun n' Fun, and LOE.
My guess is that in 20 years, maybe two or three times, and that only for show. Often did it on the wing of a tanker in weather, but it wasn't much fun. Lots of massive formations in tactical formation, but when you put more than two close wingmen on a side, the formation becomes unwieldy and has little practical value.
[FONT="]This is a 11 ship missing man, this past Sunday, casual for us yet very poignant for many family members and friends of those "gone west'. We do these more often than I care to think about. We regularly have formations in excess of 12 and occasionally as many as 20. We fly all the local fly-ins. However we practice constantly. We commonly field 6 - 9 participants 2 - 3 time a week during the summer and a few less as the fly-in season tapers off. [img=http://img165.imageshack.us/img165/7981/missingmanfv7.th.png]