Airtourer Association Inc.Formation Flying Camp
The Airtourer Association hosted a very successful formation flying camp at Yarrawonga over the weekend of 10 - 12 November 2023.
Formation flying was a common activity at association fly-ins in the early days. Many of those pilots are no longer with us or no longer fly and formations of even two aircraft are rare these days. Tony, the owner of Airtourer T6 FVV, is formation qualified and is keen to add to the enjoyment of the fly-ins by encouraging more Airtourer pilots to become formation qualified.
The aim of the weekend was threefold: to provide recurrency training for pilots already formation endorsed, facilitate training and possibly approval for yet-to-be-fully qualified and finally, introduce non-formation pilots in the hope they would become motivated to qualify.
A total of eight aircraft and 13 pilots attended. Another pilot had to cancel due to COVID and two aircraft became unavailable due to recalcitrant electrons.
The lineup after shutdown from another successful formation session.
The local Moira council was supportive and a special thanks must go to Ingo, the Aerodrome Manager, for his assistance, even driving the van supplied by the council for our use.
The first event on Friday was a meeting with senior council staff, including the Administrator and CEO. Thanks to Angela for her informative briefing on the Airtourer and the association emphasising the benefit to the local community of these activities.
The flying commenced on Friday afternoon with a four-ship culminating in one pilot being signed off as formation qualified. He subsequently provided lead for most of the weekend, freeing up the instructors to fly with non-qualified pilots.
Saturday saw an early start with another 30 minute flight of a couple of formations before briefing for the Remembrance Day flypast over the Yarrawonga Mulwala RSL ceremony at the Club Mulwala Memorial Wall. This consisted of seven aeroplanes as a diamond followed by a vic overflying the ceremony at the end of the one-minute silence with a second pass in line astern. Despite the hot and bumpy conditions, the flypast was a success and even made the local paper.
Briefing for the Remembrance Day flypast.
The weekend wasn't all flying. Yarrawonga hosted a hotrod show that weekend so the early evening was spent with a cool drink watching the 'rods doing laps of the main street.
Evening debrief of the day's formation while watching the hot rods lapping the main street of Yarrawonga.
Sunday was another early start to avoid the thermals followed by a BBQ breakfast thanks to Jai, a local LAME with extensive Airtourer experience.
A number of videos were produced thanks to Robin and Tony and can be viewed via the links below.
Overall a very successful weekend. Much of the success was due to the attention to detail that Angela and Tony applied to the planning, ensuring we could get on with flying while being well-hydrated and nourished.
Thank you Angela and Tony! Now for the bad news, you have set the standard and we look forward to doing it all again.
Videos
Lining up for the Remembrance Day flypast
