Well today I had my first formation flying. It sure is fun but it takes lots of work and concentration - 100% concentration. In fact when you're a wing man you don't see the ground from the time you take off until you come to a stop again. We fly three ship formations 3 feet apart - it looks something like this.

There is three feet clearance between wing tips and three feet between tip and tail. This is so if you over shoot you miss wings and if you slide across you miss the other guys tail. When I said you didn't see the ground from the time you take off until you land I really meant it. You line up the star on the wing with the stabilizer with your eye and then keep the star there. To do this you have to keep working the throttle constantly and you can't take your eye off the lead ship. When you turn you can't tell how much of a bank you have or how far you turn or anything. You don't ever know how fast or how high or what the RPM is. When you fly formation you NEVER take your eye off the lead ship. When you land you just keep watching the lead man and when he lands you'll land. If he makes a perfect landing you will - if he bounces you will bounce. If the lead ship flys into a mountain you'll never know it for you'll be there too. That's how coordinated formation flying is. The lead ship has all the responsibility. Well this may not be clear to you but it's the best explanation I can make - it's lots of fun. Next week we start night flying or instruments, one of the two. We also go on our first cross country next week. Well, that's all for tonight.

Love,
Rae