Having spent the last two seasons as a lead of a two-ship biplane aerobatic display team - I can honestly say that formation aeros is the most challenging and rewarding flying that I have ever done.
It has been an ambition since I sat in the front of a South African team's Pitts in 1994.
It is within the grasp of most PPLs - IF they have the right attitude, the right "hands" and good instruction.
Get the best instruction available. Mine was with current and former fast-jet pilots - including the odd former Red Arrow. It wasn't at Kemble or Sywell!
It took us (self and wingman - a former Jag Flt Cdr) 40 hours of formtion aeros practice before we felt competent to be assessed for DAs. That is roughly 120 twenty minutes flights.
Last season we managed 7 paid displays but pre-season work-up was around 14 hours (40 seperate flights) before we displayed for the first of the '08 gigs.
The more we practiced, the better we became.
Every flight was "clinically" briefed and debriefed. We learned as much in the debriefs as we did in the air. With the odd exception during practice, I knew exactly where my wingman was and what he expected of me - even if I could not see him. Safety is of course paramount and even the radio calls were rehearsed before we even opened the hangar doors.
We would then walk through the sequence three times using marks on the hangar floor to denote display access wind direction and crowd line.
Lead and wing have very different but complimentary roles.
Best flying I have EVER done
