Simkin
Yeah ok stupid me, was tired at time of that posting and brain not working
I stand to be corrected but I believe the pre-requisite for entry onto the course is 25 hours post PPL as an absolute minimum.
For good reason as you need to have developed your flying a little and it would be silly to jump straight into something so demanding.
Having said that the majority of my flying post PPL has been cross country stuff, apart from a few aero's. Good for developing a more relaxed flying style as you become used to using the radio and increase your basic skills. I reckon proper straight and level (no deviation) is probably one of the hardest skills to develop so that it just happens. No I am not there quite yet!!!
I did find the flying one hell of a leap but you need to have some faith in your abilities. If you read my account of the first few lessons you will see mention of feelings of incapability and thoughts of should I even have a licence. However, these soon disappear as you relax a bit more and of course decent instruction helps. What it does do is ram home just how unsafe formation without training would be.
The steep learning curve leaves you with a feeling of immense satisfaction at having achieved something at the end of it. How much better my basic skills are remains to be seen after the next time I fly
Just to add to the above; I also took the precaution of having an hour in the Bulldog the day before so as I felt more comfortable flying it. Add that to an hour in December as a way of introducing us to what is involved in flying formation at least meant I (sort of) knew what to expect. Like everything in flying, a bit of preparation goes a long way.