Originally Posted by
KRviator
No no, I do get that it's nowt to do with actually flying in formation - we can all do that solo afterall - and that the PIC of Viper 1 needed to fly with a Safety Pilot due his C2, but surely an Ex-Mil jet pilot, as the SP is reported to be, would understand that when you're flying formation one of the main goals is to avoid swapping paint, so the front seater flies, the back seater monitors the wingman's rejoin. If you're a safety pilot, that close to another airplane and you're not actually watching it, I'm curious as to what they were doing?
Why are you curious? The SP is rear seat, inverted, observing another aircraft manoeuvre and monitoring the flying pilot/aircraft performance, with the associated difficulties of doing that whilst inverted. (2nd flight in an S211 according to the report) #2 avoids #1 so on the first photo pass, the evidence is that #2 was being monitored, SP pipes up as it was an unbriefed manoeuvre. On the second photo pass, (not a
rejoin), what is it you are suggesting the SP should have been doing? Do you think #2 was in direct line of sight for the entire time? It’s all in the report.