Formation Flypast

Saturday Practice and Sunday Flypast

The President's Fly-in is a great opportunity to practice some formation flying. It's always good to have a "mission", and in our case, that is to put a party of CT-4s and Airtourers over the Tamworth ANZAC Park memorial.

Apologies for stating the obvious, but all participating aircraft have to be airworthy with a current MR, and you must hold the appropriate insurances and possess a current pilot’s licence, medical, and any other instrument you may need. As with other Airtourer Association events, flying activities are the responsibility of individual pilots as private operations.

We expect to have about 16 aircraft interested in taking part in formation activities. This is a very big number, and for that reason, the proposal is that the flypast will be a series of smaller formations. The Brass Monkeys group fly regularly together, so it is logical that they will be one formation. The Airtourer Association Formation Camp group are another who have flown together. It may work for the (only) Aircruiser to participate as an individual aircraft. That leaves the remaining interested pilots to agree to their own groupings before the Saturday practice.

There will be a "mass briefing" for all prospective formation participants on Saturday at 10 am sharp in the SFC Academy building. You must attend the briefing to participate. Formation groups will then split up for individual briefings.

There is time in the Saturday Program reserved for formation practice. That practice will take whatever shape that is agreed amongst the participants. Different operational zones and radio frequencies will be allocated to avoid conflict. Practice is expected to be outside controlled airspace.

It is your responsibility to arrange fuel in anticipation of your flight. The fuel truck will be in the shadesail area from Saturday 9.30 to 10.30, Sunday 10.00 to 10.30 and Sunday 12:00 to 13:00. There is also a 24 hour Viva AvGas credit card bowser.

The briefing for the Sunday flypast is scheduled for 9.30 am sharp. You must attend the briefing to participate.

Arranging a Formation Flight

The Association itself cannot organise formation flights; the Association is just facilitating the Fly-in activities. CASA regulations stipulate you can only fly an aircraft in formation if you have pre-arranged the flight with the other pilots making up the formation. So it’s up to the pilots at the Fly-in to work out what the flying activities will be. All flying operations must be conducted by suitably qualified pilots and in accordance with CASA regulations.

Formation flight introduces a variety of new risks. It is your responsibility to understand these risks, to decide whether you want to participate, and to fly safely.

The Airtourer Association has Airtourer and CT-4 Formation Pilot Notes, which provides guidelines specifically for Airtourer and CT-4 formation flying. See http://www.helpml.com/form. The Association also has formation briefing forms, which will be provided for every briefing.

Merchandise

Pilots participating in Airtourer Association formation flying events are entitled to purchase caps, patches and stickers at cost. These are exclusive to participating pilots, and are not for general distribution. Don't buy them for other people! See Tony or Angela.

Patches $15
Caps $25
Stickers $3

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