It turns out to be surprisingly difficult to properly fly in formation. The big challenge is altitude control: you need to stay within about +- 10 feet of the altitude of the person ahead of you. If you go too low, you run into their downwash and get to deal with problems ranging from turbulence to settling with power. If you go too high, you risk losing sight of the lead under your dashboard.
Actually, that’s not quite accurate. Altitude control is a big issue (in normal flight, the standard is to maintain altitude +- 100 ft), but it is not the big issue. The big thing in formation flight is making sure you don’t get so fixated on the guy ahead that you do something stupid, like fly into an antenna.
Today’s flight was a big deal. The class was given a scenario and a goal, and the responsibility to create from these a viable mission. This, they tell us, is how things work in the Real Army. We exist to support the infantry. The ground commander will pass along a lift request, and a few days later, a dozen aircraft will lift off in two formations. The only thing we were really missing was The Ride of the Valkyries.
The general plan on any training day is this: you go out, fly your route to two RTs (Remote Training sites, just random fields from whose owners the Army has secured permission to have helicopters land). At one or both sites, you practice whatever maneuvers your IP feels you currently need practice in: terrain flight decel (don’t hit the tail on the ground!), masking/unmasking, slope operations, emergency procedures, whatever. After the second RT, you fly to an actual airfield: sometimes a military stagefield, sometimes a civilian airport. You refuel there, swap students, and then the second guy does pretty much the same thing in reverse.
Today we refueled at K79J, which was busier than I’ve ever seen it. In addition to my flight, there was a gaggle of TH-67s, three or four OH-58s, a few other -60s, and a MI-17. Size-wise, that thing has the same relationship to a Black Hawk that a Hawk has to a Kiowa. I’ve got no idea what he was doing or where he came from, but it was definitely an impressive sight.
No comments yet.