I ran into the pilot of the Triple M 172 at Mangalore airshow one year, and managed to talk myself into a ride...it was a fun experience doing the traffic report!
We teach our students to turn downwind when the upwind threshold is 45 degrees over the shoulder, and the same turning base (with the downwind threshold). In theory it works, but when we have to constantly adjust for the 747-circuits some people like, it gets rather annoying!
RVAC is still doing formation endorsements....I'm about halfway through mine.