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Formation Flight Clinics and Events

Typical Clinic Schedule

The typical clinic follows the schedule outlined below. All clinic participants will receive several e-mails with the exact schedule for the event they are signed up for.

Friday

Start End Activity
---- 1300 Arrival
1400 1500 Four ship demonstration flight
1600 2000 Presentation and discussion on formation flying. (Dinner typically brought in)

Saturday

Start End Activity
0830 1000 1st Practice Flight
1000 1130 2nd Practice Flight
1130 1300 Lunch
1300 1430 3rd Practice Flight
1430 1600 4th Practice Flight
1600 Dinner (Typically the whole group)

Sunday

Start End Activity
0830 1000 Four ship flight (if ready)
0030 1200 Four ship flight
1300 ---- Departure

Preparing for a Clinic

Prerequisite Reading

Airplane Prep

  • Arrive with fuel to carry at least 600lbs. A good guide is about 40-50 gallons. If you can carry 3 people, it may assist in training and carrying photographers or JAFOs.
  • We strongly recommend you not perform any major maintenance to your aircraft right before a clinic. If you must, please consult the clinic organizer to discuss options.
  • Give your plane a good bath - you might just get some great photos. At a minimum, clean your windows inside and out to facilitate formation flying.

Pilot Preparation

  • Spend some time hand flying, get your stick and rudder skills sharp.
  • Practice your rudder skills (in level flight, slide the plane to the left and right while keeping your wings level). You will use this often while learning station keeping.
  • If you have access to a larger runway, take off and land on one side of the runway with the center line being an imaginary concrete barrier.
  • Exercise your muscle memory of the location of the flap lever and fuel switch lever (do it without looking).
  • Practice anchoring your throttle hand on the console to make many small adjustments to power settings (may need to loosen throttle tension).

Local Practice Fly-in Events

Local Events are also available to build your formation flying skills and keep the "rust" off. Practice fly-ins are typically single day events hosted by a pilot with formation flying experience. Clicking on a red marker on the map will take you to a page that has details for a fly-in event.

Pilots participating in practice fly-ins without a Safety Pilot must have attended a Formation Clinic and self assessed to fly solo. If in doubt, contact one of the C2A leaders to verify. Pilots trained by other type clinics are welcome provided that they meet C2A's requirements to fly solo.

If you would like to organize a practice fly-in event, contact Will Garber, Ron Backnick, or Mike Radomsky. Any of them can walk you through the preparation you will need to do and set you up to add your fly-in to the web site.