Two Ship Formation #1 - Introduction with Fingertip

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This lesson is an introduction to formation flight using the "Fingertip" formation made up of two aircraft.
In this video we cover:
Flights vs Elements
Responsibilities within a formation
What Fingertip looks like
How to maintain your position in a formation
How to perform turns while in Fingertip
Comments and feedback are always welcome, so if this video helped you out hit the like button and let me know in the comments below. Cheers!

[@srviejo2298]

FWIW, I took formation flying instruction back in the 1980s out of KCCR. My instructor was a Navy Ace from WWII , who served in the Pacific Theater, flying the F6F Hellcat (his first three kills in the Marianas Turkey Shoot). He later transitioned to the Corsair. The dual instruction in formation flying occurred in two PA-38 Piper Tomahawks, with the instructor in the other airplane. All instruction made heavy use of air-to-air radio communications. Included in the instruction were join ups (including join ups that were initiated from an opposing course), kiss offs (separating from the formation), moving from right alignment to left alignment (and visa versa), formation turns where the relative position to the other aircraft was maintained, formation turns where both aircraft remained in the same horizontal plane, formation departures and formation landings. In all of the above, it was emphasized that the rudder correction should be used to maintain lateral position. Banking to maintain lateral position was never used, with additional emphasis that using bank to maintain lateral position always presented the possibility that one could loose sight of the lead aircraft.

[@leonka5284]

as usual. astonishing tutorial. i don't need to looking for any other tips, as Your lessons are very clear to me. fantastic work

[@TheRaptorXX]

Fantastic fingertip formation fondling!! Cheers Req.

[@RequiemsACTL]

Oh dear...I fear you may have a new catchphrase for yourself Rap :-)

[@TheRaptorXX]

@@RequiemsACTL Only after I get me head around formation flying and fondling!!

[@AviationPlus]

Love it. Really fills in the blanks when it comes to formation flying knowledge.

[@ianperry9571]

This was a great video and explained EXACTLY what I was wondering. Thanks for sharing!

[@craigdavies4682]

This is something I been practicing for years and still have hard time keeping formation. But I do ok, having rudder pedals really helped me but power settings particularly from an AI flight lead is always a big question mark. Track ir also helps with SA. Then when the fight starts I totally loose sight of my flight leader usually within seconds lol. Still great fun but it takes a heck of a lot of concentration to the point of it being exhausting.

[@RequiemsACTL]

Yeah having an idea of where your wingman is after the fight starts is the hardest part! You have to be willing to look away from your bandit briefly even when fighting it to know where your wingman is. The best time to do that is when the bandit is doing something that is predictable, so timing is everything.

[@craigdavies4682]

@@RequiemsACTL Different sim and period but I just ran an RoF sortie as the Baron himself its late 1916 and b flight with me as #number 2 took off to squash some cheeky Englishmen trying to steal our superior German beer so we had to get it back. Headed out over the front held perfect separation all the way to the front , As usual when the fight started I lost sight of him. We did ok knocked out 3 of those pesky Englishmen and lost non of our own. Headed back home for beer cake and medals :)

[@distantlight4527]

Learning how to do this in the real world just now. Quite an excellent tutorial. A couple points from our training: Your fingertip is echelon to us. We use the line of the wing tip and the spinner and we position such that our body/head is level with the hinge of the vertical stab. Secondly, when you're outside on a turn, we term that "stepped up" and when inside, "stepped down". By far the most difficult parts of this so far is power management and the reversals from turning in one direction to another, particularly from stepped up to stepped down.

[@RequiemsACTL]

Awesome stuff Distant Light, my lead in these videos and who is my peer review was an ex-USAF fighter guy so it's good to learn from him. Good luck with the RL form training! Keep stirring that stick :-)

[@gort8203]

@@RequiemsACTL I have recently learn that USAF and RAF have slightly different meanings for the term echelon, so this is not surprising. USAF echelon formation is all aircraft on the same side from the leader. If aircraft are on both sides of lead it is fingertip or finger four. Except for very slight turns, turns in echelon are always away from the wingmen, who remain level with lead. The main purpose of echelon is to set up for a pitch out to separate the formation.

[@wezpa]

Awesome video, like all your others. Keep up the good work!

[@RequiemsACTL]

Cheers Wez, I wanted to jump straight into the tactical stuff but I think these building blocks are important before covering it

[@wezpa]

@@RequiemsACTL Agreed, I think it builds up very nicely towards (what I belive is) the upcoming series. I am very much looking forward to it! An ex airforce pilot I flew some formation with gave me the tip to take two separate features on the lead aircraft, and try to keep them aligned. That made maintaining my position a lot easier for me personally. I just wanted to say that I really like your videos. They are always of very high quality with really good examples!

[@RequiemsACTL]

I appreciate that Wez, I always try and get a near perfect example...it can take a while sometimes LOL Taking visual references off the airplane is exactly what you need though! In this video using the Spit my goal was to align lead's nose spinner with his cannon basically. In trying to generalise things I left that out as it's specific to the Spit, so I'm expecting that people would figure out what lead looks like at that 30° line for whatever airplane they fly.

[@wezpa]

@@RequiemsACTL that makes sense! Have a great day!

[@RoyRogerer]

Always great to have these tips. After numerous fails, I learned things the hard way, but even then all the things are not obvious, so having it all laid out in front of me helps a lot, Thanks! One question. I have problem looking out for enemy/search target, maintain speed and heading, navigate etc AND keep myself in formation. Is it pure practice or are there small technical elements that helps one to stay in formation? Also what are thing that must be communicated in terms of speed? I realized some ask for manifold pressure while some ask for my current speed.

[@RequiemsACTL]

When you go into a tactical formation actively looking for the bad guys your spacing will be much wider so the formation is easier to hold. Then you do a regular scan around you and clearing #1 / #2 six oclock. For the speed...generally #1 will want to tell you his power setting (both RPM and MP) and desired airspeed. #1 should not be flying at a power setting that forces you to be outside of max continuous power basically. You're looking at the relative movement between you to maintain a formation, so if you have a ball park for what his power and airspeed are you know what region of power you need to be in to maintain position. Only knowing airspeed means you play games with guessing what the power should be unless you have all that memorised.

[@dramm33]

Great video! Liked this new series. How we are going to check #1 six if we need to look at the leader to maintain formation?

[@MrTornadoman97]

Generally you're #1 responsibility is don't hit #1. You dont constantly stare at his six, you only need a quick second or two glance to check. If you're flying formation well enough already, the amount you might deviate out of formation when checking six should be small and easily correctable with small inputs.

[@RequiemsACTL]

Fingertip formation isn't for combat, it's simply to practice formation flight and maintaining position, so in this instance the leader is your reference the whole time basically. Once you get into the tactical side of things your spacing from #1 is going to be MUCH larger...so it's more relaxed position wise, allowing you time to scan outside the formation for the enemy most of the time. The responsibilties I talked earlier about are a generalised look at things to keep in mind once we start getting into the tactical side.

[@Claude-Eckel]

Here's a good, concise summary on formation flying, it also covers (briefly) Requiem's aforementioned _'combat spread'_ : www.britannica.com/technology/formation-flying

[@jonskowitz]

Theory is great, desperately need practice

[@RequiemsACTL]

Find a friend and go online together! As long as #1 flies smoothly it will be good practice. Doing this in a sim is much harder than formation flying in RL though due to our joysticks being much shorter (which can make them more sensitive without using curves).

[@yammoyammamoto8323]

Flying lead is incredibly taxing... You have to be able to predict a turn so precisely that you can make adjustment smoothly - and still hit exact headings and positions. Try the comms yourself if you are mocking about trying to make smooth, controlled turns. E.g: kzbin.info/www/bejne/iWavhHWci612jaM

[@chemako67]

Great videos, i usually find it difficult to manage throttle and power in general in order to stay in the right position not too ahead not too behind. Any suggestion?

[@RequiemsACTL]

Once you're in position the throttle movements will be very slight...just try to not over compensate and watch for subtle movements forward and back. It's kind of like anticipating what's going to happen. You should always be making some kind of adjustment.

[@-few-fernando11]

My two cents, if you are going too fast/overtaking #1 you can try to use a bit of rudder(1/3) oposite the position of #1 and enough aileron so you are flying level, but driftinng sideways, this acts like an airbrake, you need practice, but is very handy. Ofcourse, if you need to do it, you are already going way too fast.

[@chemako67]

-FEW- Fernando11 thanks I’ll try it!

[@ЗлойБродяга-н9н]

Is it possible to make a video with subtitles?)

[@RequiemsACTL]

English subtitles or other languages? I can only speak English, but anyone can submit subtitles for my videos in another language. All I need to do is click a button after they are submitted to approve them.

[@ЗлойБродяга-н9н]

English subtitles please, on the last video they were not.

[@RequiemsACTL]

The subtitles should be there now, KZbin can take a while to process the automatic subtitles sometimes.

[@ЗлойБродяга-н9н]

Yes indeed, today is) and yesterday was not, thanks I will look!

[@motionsic]

Most timely, indeed! I have just been practicing these with RC FPV planes. Question: Is it better to make minor heading adjustments during formation with bank or rudder inputs? kzbin.info/www/bejne/hWKvp2NoqdeJi80

[@RequiemsACTL]

That's gotta be hard doing it in RC looking at the video. It looks like it's almost in fast forward! Making your heading adjustments with rudder or aileron is fine. It just depends on your preference.

[@motionsic]

The Air Combat Tutorial Library Yes, not easy to fly RC formation. Things happen much faster in RC scale. Also, there’s 50ms latency between what’s happening at the plane and what’s seen in googles.

[@judgingmorty7371]

i dont have friend to practice with

[@odonovan]

This formation was abandoned due to it sacrificing the outside man. Can you do a video of the line abreast formation, as that's the one which was adopted to cover everyone in the formation, even in two plane elements? Here's a reference video. kzbin.info/www/bejne/rmG5nJiVfb-nd6c

[@RequiemsACTL]

Yeah this isn't a combat formation at all, it's just one of the building blocks for learning how to fly with a wingman in a formation. I'll be covering the combat spread and all that other good tactical stuff a couple videos down the road, don't worry!.

[@odonovan]

@@RequiemsACTL, SWEET! Thanks.