The Formation Mindset

Two very different beasts

Formation flying is said to be the most exciting thing you can do with a pilot's license and the world's most-challenging team sport. It is also, necessarily, serious shit. Formation flying demands a full psychological aviation overhaul, turning the solo pilot's freedom of flight mindset into a study in discipline.

StanTilley's words

Firstly, let's visit our guru's wise words:

The Victa/CT4 series of aircraft are excellent for formation flying. [...]

To fly formation requires skill and concentration equal to aerobatics and other precise flying.

Keep in mind that formation flying is probably the most dangerous of all flying. Why? Because the safety of the formation depends not only on yourself but the other pilots as well.

[...]

To keep your formation flying safe, there are a few basic rules.

• Do not fly formation with other aircraft without a pre-flight briefing.
• Do not fly formation if you do not have an endorsement.
• Do not fly formation if the other pilots are not endorsed.
• Do not fly formation if you do not have complete faith in your leader. (The formation leader is the most important member of the formation. He or she can give you a brilliant and exciting flight or fly you into disaster.)
• Keep the other aircraft in sight at all times.
• Concentrate, communicate, and anticipate.

Victa Aerobatics, Stan Tilley

I'm certain Stan wouldn't have minded me the fourth (bolded) bullet point to add ‘complete faith in your wingmates’. As he says himself, the safety of the formation depends not only on yourself but the other pilots as well. So let's get into why the right mindset is critical for every single member of a formation team.

Pre-Flight Mindset: Beyond 100%

Solo recreational flight is typically an individual mission; you have the ability to do what you want in flight, when you want or need. After all, there's no one else really watching, right?

Formation flight, however, is the absolute antithesis of individual freedom. It is the embodiment of discipline, conformity, and restraint. You cease to be a pilot in command (yes, even the lead pilot, just not in the same way as a wingmate) and become a cog or a single gear, in a multi-part machine. So leave your solo pilot hat at the airfield gate.

If you arrive tired or out-of-sorts for a solo flight, pulling the pin is an easy choice. In a team environment the pressure to go is higher, but also the onus on you to opt out is much greater. For formation, your personal okay-ness needs to be more like 110% because you aren't just flying for yourself; you are choosing to fly inches from others.

True airmanship is the willingness to say, Nah, I just can't today. Good wingmates won't jibe you; they'll trust you more for your honesty. If you aren't 100% - physically or mentally - gracefully step down, stay on the ground or take the right-hand seat as an observer. Placing your team's safety above your own desire to fly is the ultimate team-trust-building exercise.

The Ego Vacuum: No Room for Mavericks

In solo flight, you might get away with a bit of vocal fry on the radio (look it up!), or a high-speed go-around to look cool for the ground onlookers, but in formation, Leave. Your. Ego. At. Home. If you feel the need to be impressive, you have already failed the trust test.

No matter who you fly with, a set of Standard Operating Procedures must be agreed to and adhered to. Unfortunately, for some, taking their I do it a different way hat off can be difficult, but a formation team flying with a mix of SOPs is not safe.

The ability to receive (and act on) feedback and criticism can be difficult for a maverick, but they are a critical part of the debrief and can be very frank. Your flying will be scrutinised. Bring your thick hide and be not just ready but willing to receive and act upon that feedback without taking it personally. Because if you can't, team safety is compromised.

Thankfully, formation flying is self-limiting. Good pilots quickly work out who is flying for (and critically, with) the team and who is flying for their own glory. If you are a maverick, the pool of wingmates willing to risk their lives with you will eventually dry up, keeping the community healthy and safe.

The Sacred Briefing

The briefing is where a sortie is won or lost. Beyond standard flight planning of weather and fuel, a formation brief is an extensive, exhaustive, high-concentration event. It covers geographic boundaries, wingmate positions, lead changes, radio frequencies, and the what-ifs - engine failures, losing sight, and the dreaded swapping paint.

Briefings (both pre-flight and debrief) are non-negotiable and sacred. Professionalism means turning up with your game face on. If you arrive late (not an option), talk over people, treat it as a social hour, or spend more time uploading your from-the-cockpit videos to social media instead of fully participating, you are leaving less space for yourself to learn and less space for others' important questions - thereby eroding safety margins. Not just your safety margin, but those of your wingmates.

The Silent Contracts of Trust

Formation flying is contractual. While the Team Contract is to act safely as one machine, each pilot has an individual silent contract with the wingmate they are following: I will not hit you. Number 2 has a contract with Number 1: I will not hit you. Number 3 has a contract with Number 2: I will not hit you. And so on. In this manner, everyone remains safe. Position changes complicate this but the essence is the same.

As a wingmate, your professionalism is measured by how well you maintain your station, requiring a level of trust almost unnatural to a solo pilot. Checking up on the Lead by glancing at the GPS or altimeter is a breach of that trust, and that half-second lapse in concentration can be fatal. If you have faith in your leader you are able to obsessively trust they are managing the navigation and terrain so that you can obsessively manage your own contract, the gap between your wingtip and the one in front of you.

Micro-Picture Concentration

Solo pilots are trained to think big picture: fuel, weather, forced landing fields. As a wingmate your world shrinks to a micro-picture. Your situational awareness is tiny by necessity, focused on the few feet of air separating you from your wingmate and listening to your engine.

You are monitoring, assessing, and reacting in micro-second increments. You aren't replicating the Lead's movements; you are aiming for synchronisation. It's almost like mind-reading; identifying tiny changes in the visual picture - a slip of rudder or aileron motion - and instinctively responding with miniscule inputs. This SAS-style of concentration for 40 minutes or more is exhausting. Our modern minds aren't built for it, which is why we must be professionally religious with our focus and remove other distractions such as distrust.

Role of Lead

With wingmates locked into the micro-picture, Lead is flying the virtual cockpit of a much larger, multi-part machine. Lead must fly with absolute predictability, making big, early decisions to keep the entire team clear of traffic and terrain. It's a lot more difficult to manoeuvre a 5-ship-wide formation of aircraft, than a single aircraft. And, there's more people involved. More points of failure. Every wingmate relies on the Lead's judgment. This is the very definition of trust: Lead provides safety, wingmates provide precision.

The case to not fly with those we don't trust

Other than in military settings, formation flying is a recreational choice; no one needs to die for it. It's a play type of flight; which is the very reason some pilots struggle with the professionalism required. Their ego, their inner maverick, their look at me! I'm a pilot, takes over because they think they're just playing around doing formation. And being endorsed definitely does not make you an expert, you've simply a licence to learn how to do it well.

The margin for error is as small as the distance you are away from someone and relies on so much more than skill. By choosing to fly with someone who demonstrates distrustful behaviours or attitudes - a performer, negotiator, or who simply lacks av-integrity - you are further decreasing the margin for error, lowering your own airmanship score and putting the entire community at risk.

We must trust our wingmates and they must trust us. If we tolerate mavericks, we dilute the safety of the entire formation pilot pool.

The Ultimate Reward

The mission is over, engines shut down, the Formation Pilot Mindset finally relaxes. You've reached the best and possibly most important part: the debrief. The shared exhilaration in a good team's mission success creates a camaraderie like no other.

With Lead driving the debrief, you pick apart the performance, share the av-love, and celebrate the individual and team successes, always coming away slightly av-wiser from the multiple lessons. And if you haven't found a lesson, you either have the wrong attitude or you're exceptional - and we all know which is more likely.

Professionalism is a mindset. As far as I am concerned, formation flying professionalism in reality is not something you can switch on and off - you either have it, or you don't. The right formation mindset is demonstrated by actions and words, on the ground, and in the air. Look to fly with those that demonstrate the right mindset for formation flying in every aspect, bring your best self - always - and you'll have an av-experience like no other.