Formation

CLOSE FORMATION

In World War One and the days of the Royal Flying Corps it was recognised that safety in numbers was as relevant in the air as it was on the ground. With this in mind it is obvious why formation flying is one of the staple principles in a pilots repertoire.

Formation flying is essential not only in a combat environment but in every day applications such as bad weather, when an aircraft is experiencing difficulties or merely departing and recovering to an airfield in good timely order. To this end, every Fast Jet pilot in addition to his operational tasks must be reliable and confident at close formation in order to be an effective wingman. The world famous Red Arrows base their display almost entirely on their abilities to fly good close formation. These skills were originally learnt at Advanced Fast Jet training units such as 208 Sqn.

At 208 Sqn the formation flying is taught approximately two thirds of the way through the course. At this stage the trainee's are competent and capable at flying the Hawk at low level and in bad weather. There are five close formation sorties where the students will learn to take off and land in formation, flying at both medium and high levels. Having mastered these basic formation skills and demonstrated so by going solo, the student will then move on to learn tactical formation.

TACTICAL FORMATION

Tactical formation unlike close formation is used at medium and low level and is purely for operational purposes. Tactical formation provides a balance between mutual cross cover - the search for attacking enemy aircraft, and manoeuvrability - vital for evading enemy aircraft and low level flying. Within tactical formation there are several different types of formation: fighting wing, arrow and battle. Fighting wing and arrow are similar to a very slack close formation position. Battle however, is radically different flown at 2000 yards and line abreast. To illustrate this, one needs only to recall the pictures relayed by the media during the 1991 Gulf War of aircraft flying evenly spaced and at low level over the Arabian Desert.

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