Formation Flying
Hey all,
My friend and I are +- 100 hr tt PPL's. We've decided to fly formation together to spice up our hour building. Both of us although not experienced in terms of logged flying time have flown hundreds of hours with other more experienced pilots. We have also received some hands on formo training with a few of the top formation pilots in South Africa.
We have briefed and and have setup specific operations for all parts of the flight. We've flown roughly 6Hrs in formo together. But on Sunday I took my dad for a flip where I met my friend by chance whilst on the ground. We decided to do a bit of formo on the way back.
Midway I took the lead and my friend repositioned by flying passing underneath something he was taught to do but I wasn't. I got surprised because I lost him visualy and my dad freaked because he had no coms and didn't know what was happening. We've since talked about it, he accepts blame and we've tightened up our operations "rules". But my dad isn't happy he reckons we're inexperienced and will kill ourselves.
Can anyone help with advice for formo and for proving my dad wrong or right? Are we too inexperienced to do this? What is a good total time that we should begin at ? My argument is we've been taught the basics and will only get good with practise. We fly safe, 1.5 wingspan separation maintain good vis by flying 45 degrees from eachother and have agreed to a maximum rate 1 turn. Are we ok please help !!
Regards,
Gerard.