A more thorough write-up ;o) Pt 1
I just noticed that Doug linked to my initial ?thank-you? post about this past weekend?s formation clinic held in Brownwood. He referred to it as a ?write-up?. I?ll be the first to admit it?s a rather lame write-up of events, so here?s a stab at some words that hopefully qualify better for that title.
Friday
Arrival day found clear blue skies with typical hot Texas afternoon weather. By the time I got there and parked on the line, there were already 10 or so RVs ties down ? from all over. The signature unpainted RV7 with the yellow ?weathermeister.com? logo on the side indicated to me that the so-cal contingent was among them. I was greeted by Stu and informed that the plan was to head over to the hotel, check in then find some place to eat. The ?class work? was to begin at 18:00 sharp.
I waited around the airport for another 30 to 45 minutes or so as there were constant arrivals of RVs and we were waiting to get a full van load to run back in to town. The town itself is about 4 miles or so south of the airport.
When we had nearly a full load, we piled in the courtesy van, aptly labeled with a ?Brownwood Senior Citizens Center? logo on the side of it. The quick trip to town gave most of us the opportunity to introduce and greet ? the usual ?where ya from? type of chit chat. Picking out the veterans in the bunch was easy ? they all had the ?Falcon Flight? shirts on. It took more than a few minutes for this gaggle to check in at Chez-Days-Inn ? but we all eventually got our room keys and agreed to meet back down in the lobby by 16:30.
Dinner was had a short walk across the road at a steakhouse called Humphrey Pete's. It looks just like it sounds ?the food was good, the beer was cold and the conversation was never ending. I think that every one of us there decided it was time to get our weekly quota of beef through one of their burgers.
18:00 arrived quickly but we all managed to be back at the hotel in our chairs at attention for the clinic overview. Stu gave the introduction to the schedule, followed by personal introductions by each attendee ? background, flight experience etc. I was very happy to find out that I was not the only one with zero formation experience.
Stu turned the presentation over to Kahuna - Mike Stewart. The first slide up on the projector was a list of all the attendees ? they were color coded. My color was, not surprising, RED. Mike pointed out quickly that the RED?s are referred to as ?scary guys? ? first timers. Novices were yellow, intermediates blue/green and experienced guys are green. He made all the scary guys move to the front row ? to make sure we paid attention. It also made it easier for him to quiz us during the lecture to see if we did our homework.
The lecture was well organized and presented a lot of information about the situations we were about to be exposed to. Wisely enough, the reds and yellows would not be alone for this exposure ? a safety pilot will be assigned to fly right seat. Whew.
If there?s one piece of advice I can offer it?s this: BE PREPARED ahead of time. Read what you are told. Know it. Without admitting anything, I will say that I spent the time after the presentation re-reading the literature ;o)
Saturday ? Flight Day
Skies were again clear first thing in the morning with winds from the south. We all arrived at the airport by 8:30 via the short trip in the seniors van. The briefing area was contained in a large hangar with plenty of flow through ventilation. Stu laid out the events of the day - and the flight teams quickly broke out to their own separate briefing areas. A flight team consisted of 4 people, one lead, and 3 wingmen. Each team was assigned a flight area and a specific air-to-air frequency to use once airborne.
The overall goal of the flights for the day is that of learning. It was not to put on a show or demonstrate the prowess of the experienced people, rather it was to attempt to pass on those skills to the newer crowd ? the scary guys. The flight leads took this to heart and each mission of the day was planned based around skills that we all learned in previous flights.
A total of 4 missions were scheduled with the first being an introductory flight where I flew right seat with my safety pilot ? SchoolMom. The maneuvers in this first flight were more aggressive than we would encounter in later flights, but were meant to show us what the picture ?should? be, and what were honing our flight skills to accomplish. We experienced the basic formations as well as the art of moving from one formation layout to another. I?m the first to admit that after all my flying thus far trying to keep AWAY from other objects, the site picture of intending to be THAT close to another aircraft was unsettling at first.
Mission #2 was flown in my aircraft (RV7a) with SchoolMom in the right seat. The same maneuvers were performed, but much less aggressive. Again this flight lasted about 30 minutes, with 15 an additional minutes afterward for debriefing how the flight went.
Mission #3 was planned by Lead to focus more on what us newbies needed. In my case it ended up being a series of breaks and re-joins with me in the #2 position.
By the time mission 4 came around, we were all getting pretty tired. A few scary guys and others decided to call it a day and sit this one out. I didn?t ? and this left me as the only scary guy in our flight, so this mission ended up being tailored around *my* skills and what I needed to improve upon. Since I was comfortable in the #2 position, I opted to sit in #3 this time. My flying clearly was not as sharp as it had been previously, but I do think I was making progress ? certainly understanding the mechanics more. SchoolMom was always supportive and clearly stated that I was improving with each flight ? even though I felt I took some steps backward on mission 3.
16:30ish found all flights on the ground, and planes in the hangar ? except for 10 ships of Falcon flight which were left on the ramp. Dinner was ready ? some excellent Texas bbq brisket with all the trimmings ? courtesy of the airport personnel and the Brownwood chamber of commerce.
Post dinner, those 10 ships on the ramp were fired up as the rest of us, and anyone else around, were treated to the actual airshow routine that these guys put on recently (I cannot remember the airport it was at). They did a great job, just one minor boo-boo when a member broke left out of formation instead of right ? causing his two wingmen to break left with him. No harm, no foul.
Time to head back to the hotel and enjoy an adult beverage or two over at Humphrey Pete?s. They set us out on the back patio overlooking the river. As was the night before, the stories abounded and the time flew by quick. More than one guy there bought rounds for us all ? if I didn?t say it enough at the time ? here?s another THANK YOU for y?all. A noticeable highlight though was when a bachelorette party walked through complete with a bride in her vale. They were selling certain ?items? for donations to cover the cost of their party ? I think they made a few dollars from us ? nuff said ;o)
The sun went down, the mosquito?s came out and I was beat. Time to hit the hay.