Formation Flying. An Introduction!{produced by "CRUTCH'

[100th_Alien]

Formations are all too rarely seen in the arenas, why? Well they are a lot of trouble to fly and they do require skill levels sometimes beyond the pilots flying in them. Not to mention the limitations the Sim itself when trying to fly in close. With poor leadership and station-keeping skills, formations are all too easily broken up and scattered to the winds by a simple heading change much less enemy action.

Despite all that, formations are an integral part of what aerial combat is all about.
Just as different formations allow a football or basketball team to execute offensive and defensive plays with greater effectiveness so do the aerial formations.

Then there is the intimidation factor of a well flown formation. Everyone agrees that a solo bomber is dead meat when an enemy fighter spots but if that fighter encounters three, four or more bombers in a tight formation, a certain amount of hesitation will enter his mind before diving into an attack. The risk is just too high for the reward.
Meeting a group of enemy fighters is bad enough but if they are in a good formation as well, you KNOW they are a group that is on the ball and best avoided. Unless you are in a group just as sharp.

This series on formations will examine all aspects on forming, station-keeping, leading, types and their uses.

These posts will start in a lecture format but everyone is encouraged to comment, question or otherwise engage in an informative discussion of the topic.

Flying Formations – Styles
I have flown with many formations, bombers and fighters, over the years and seen just about every style used. They range from a bunch of pilots in the same general airspace to some pretty sophisticated organizations.

One of the more common is the gaggle type where everyone jockeys for position relative to just one pilot. Not a ‘pretty’ group but it does get almost everyone from one point to another point with the least amount of effort. However this gaggle is usually strung out over several miles of airspace and there is very little coordination between the front of the gaggle and tail-end Charley. For fighters, this is not a death sentence because they are able to fight and defend themselves if need be. Bombers, on the other hand, lose any advantage of numbers. A gaggle like that is a huge ‘FRESH MEAT’ sign waving on RADAR attracting all the sharks to pick off stragglers one by one.

The next level up are the semi-organized formations. These have most of the pilots flying with a designated wingman but everyone is still taking most of their cues from the one formation lead. This offers a bit more protection to the bomber pilots but not as much as it could be. This type of formation tends to have a large group near the lead with a small tail of stragglers behind. Generally station-keeping is not high in this formation and pilots that started on the left of the lead will drift from one side to the other as heading change and errors in navigation happen. While not fatal in and of itself, this can make knowing which fighters to detach harder on the leader. Say the leader spots bandits off to the left and he detaches pilot X to engage those bandits. If pilot X has drifted over to the right side of the formation, he is out of position to engage those bandits. That delay could be the difference between holding a bandit away from the main group and having the main group engaged.

Last is the formal organizations, usually squads. These groups spend the time practicing to hone the skills needed for good formation work. They have clearly defined leaders and the wingmen know their responsibilities. Maneuvers are crisp with no prolonged jockeying for positions they should already be in. Pilots that fly these formations are boasting to any bandit that he will have a hard fight on his hands if he is silly enough to engage. The skills necessary for this level of flying are directly transferable to those required for a well functioning wingman pair.

I will introduce more on "Formation Flying" in increments, so as everyone has a chance to read. Next will be Formation Flying "LEADING" which I will post Saturday. The total Formation Flying reads will consist of 5 parts. Look for my training packs on NAVIGATION 101 a 3 part read in the weeks to come.

PS.
Hope these help.

[IV/JG1_Oesau]

Good to see a guide such as this coming out. Formation flying online IMO is a must if you want to survive (ok, most of the time it is) and is one of the reasons that people join squadrons.

When you fly with any one new voice comms are essential (because you can’t see hand signals), but in the end of the day practice is what it is all about. This practice also has to follow a standard format to ensure quick join ups and minimise time without mutual cover.

This of course often does go to pieces once combat starts (as all well laid plans do), but the basic element of a wingman and leader still remain, they just take on different responsibilities.

For those of you about to embark in learning this skill – I think you’ll enjoy the benefits of it when flying online. It’s a skill that takes some time (and requires disciplined flying ie. being able to hold alt, heading, speed) but is worth it.

The SCFG (Southern Cross Fighter Gruppe) was fortunate in having ex-military create the SOPS.

My suggestion for practicing as a wingman is to set-up a mission that has a friendly a/c fly straight and level at a known air speed (remember though that in the FMB that the values are in TAS and your instruments are IAS).

Looking forward to this series are articles.

[MaXMhZ]

Thanks 100th - looking forward to this one

With the Pe-2 add-on here this guide will be very valuable.

for a bomber it's even more important to fly in formation than for a fighter - just think of board-gunner effectiveness - In a good formation this will increase a LOT - so much even a fighter doesn't have a good chance to "pick off" a bomber flying in formation. A good formation is the best defence for a bomber. It's invaluable to fighters too - even a single wingman can increase your effectiveness and survival chance a lot.

It's all too often when trying to fly as a wingman the player you try to defend/assist throws open his throttle completely (you can allmost hear them think "There's someone on my tail - I got to get outta here" not even bothering to check if it's an enemy or a friend) and flies off to his doom without you ever having a chance of catching up. The aspect of formation flying still has to sink in into the minds of this community. I think a guide like this could help a lot.
I found practicing flying with V1's who fly straight and level for a long time very good practice Eventualy you'll be good enough to tip them over too which is fun to do also.
As an added bonus the V1 has a smoke trail which will help you to get into formation