Trent Palmer discusses near mid-air collision

[Neal]

I'm glad he lived to tell this story. I predict someone in these gaggles is going to have a mid-air someday and someone is going to die. Since getting into backcountry aviation and watching a lot of flying on YouTube it's shocking how many are flying formation when not trained for formation. I can't begin and refuse to try and train formation flying in this discussion. I know how intense formation training is in the military. I'm glad Trent shared this story and hope many can learn from it.

As I commented on the video, this is why I have BRS. The original founder of this forum (Flightinfo.com) - Mark Schaden, a good friend of mine, died in a mid-air. My first assignment, two A-10 pilots in my squadron both perished from a mid-air when losing sight of one another during a rejoin. The list goes on. It can and will happen. I bought mirrors for my plane so if I'm flying "the same way" with others that I know are not trained in formation I can monitor them. We use mirrors in A-10's to be aware of our wingmen and also for air-to-air combat reasons as well but they are critical for formation ops as well. I'll stop there, again, this is not to train formation flying. I just cringe when I see this non stop on YouTube. I'll offer one tip as I did to Trent's video. Someone needs to be in charge, the others need to follow. There is one flight lead, the others are wingmen. I hope Trent realizes too that someone flies, someone films. That should not be one in the same.

 

[Waldom]

Training, a thorough brief, and rigid discipline. Flying formation flying without these elements is a bad idea.

What these gentlemen were flying was what I term a gaggle. Gaggles are operated by pilots not thoroughly trained in formation flying. Without the understanding of formation fundamentals and a rigidly briefed plan, an incident like this one is likely.

A gaggle can be flown with some degree of safety if a lead with formation flying experience is designated, the lead briefs a "follow the leader in trail and keep the airplane in front of you at a specific interval" plan, and the discipline to follow that plan is emphasized. The plan should be thought out all the way through the flight ahead of time in order to designate a timed takeoff interval and to facilitate recovery (landing) at every intended landing area. This includes not only provision for a safe interval between landing aircraft but also a parking plan. An airplane milling around in the landing area while the pilot tries to figure out where to park in a restricted area causes cascading problems.

Gaggles should be kept small. If one of the pilots involved is new to this type of flying, It should probably kept down to a two ship exercise. With the leavening of some experience in the trail pilots, the number can be increased but there is a limit. That should be around five airplanes. A gaggle of five airplanes with half mile separation between each one makes a long line that can get unwieldy. A group larger than that should be broken up into separate gaggles with individual flight leads and a plan to separate the gaggles.

A gaggle well organized exposes untrained pilots to some of the basic concepts of formation flying. The fun of flying together with some degree of safety involved tends to encourage them to seek formal formation training.

 

[Neal]

Agree 100%.

I think Trent Palmer is using a new camera system which appears to be gimbal controlled. It appears in his video a bottom mounted gimbaled camera setup. You cannot fly and be heads down playing photographer. There were comments along this line on the video that PIC and Cameraman cannot be one in the same. Asking for trouble. It's one thing flying alone, but in said gaggle among untrained (formation) pilots and no solid plan (presumed) it's a recipe for funerals.

Edit/Add: For those that flew in the military, such as fighter/attack/formation...debriefs can be harsh. They are that way for a reason so we all learn from it. A solid brief, mission, debrief is crucial and this is very foreign to General Aviation pilots and those seeking YouTube like activities. I have a hard enough time with GA patterns at uncontrolled airports, seeing formation flying by untrained is another one that is hard to watch. One of these days I'll do a post and/or video about military vs GA patterns where military uses patterns for recovery, GA for flying and time building. That's for another topic but one at the top of my list.