Fingertip formation

[JzItUp]

Hello haole.

Im Kim, in South Korea. First, I hope you will understand my poor English skill which might lead misunderstanding.

In Falcon's cry and Vipers in the storm , It seems that they flew in fingertip
formation until they completed refuling or crossed the FEBA.
I think some loosen formation would be easier to maintain position than
fingertip formation.

Why are you fly so tightly even at war?


Best regards.

[robviper]

Hello haole.

Im Kim, in South Korea. First, I hope you will understanding my poor English skill which might lead misunderstanding.

In Falcon's cry and Vipers in the storm , It seems that they flew in fingertip
formation until they completed refuling or crossed the FEBA.
I think some loosen formation would be easier to maintain position than
fingertip formation.

Why are you fly so tightly even at war?


Best regards.

hm... Haole's not here at the moment so I'll try to answer this question..
a) because they sometimes got to maintain radio silence and hand sign from pilot to pilot are the only way of communication in this case (wouldn't it be great to have this in FO :D )
b) because you don't loose the visual on your leader (which is the worst thing you can do... gettin lost over hostile territory..)
c) because your whole flight is together and you don't face the risk of a mid-air of one of your wingmen with a member of another flight
d) I'm sure Haole knows more reasons.....

:beer:

Rob

[Sehm]

minimize the radar signature. If two airplanes fly very close to each other they will appear as a single contact at long range.

[JzItUp]

Thank you rob and sehm.

Thoes are quite reasonable. :)

cheers

[Haole]

Hello haole.

Im Kim, in South Korea. First, I hope you will understand my poor English skill which might lead misunderstanding.

In Falcon's cry and Vipers in the storm , It seems that they flew in fingertip
formation until they completed refuling or crossed the FEBA.
I think some loosen formation would be easier to maintain position than
fingertip formation.

Why are you fly so tightly even at war?


Best regards.
We rarely fly fingertip unless the weather is really bad when we are on the tanker. We normally fly in a "fluid position" going to the tanker. The flight lead concentrates on working the tanker rejoin and the wingman just follows him around in a "comfortable" position. Like a skier behind a ski boat.
Once on the wing of the tanker we are usually in a Route position (loose fingertip) unless the vis is bad.
Coming off the tanker we usually stay in a fairly close formation until clear of the tanker track then we spread it out to tactical position as soon as possible. We stay close in the tanker track just to minimize the risk of a midair with guys coming in to the track.
Hope this answered your question.

[JzItUp]

We rarely fly fingertip unless the weather is really bad when we are on the tanker. We normally fly in a "fluid position" going to the tanker. The flight lead concentrates on working the tanker rejoin and the wingman just follows him around in a "comfortable" position. Like a skier behind a ski boat.
Once on the wing of the tanker we are usually in a Route position (loose fingertip) unless the vis is bad.
Coming off the tanker we usually stay in a fairly close formation until clear of the tanker track then we spread it out to tactical position as soon as possible. We stay close in the tanker track just to minimize the risk of a midair with guys coming in to the track.
Hope this answered your question.

Hello haole.

That is quite informative. :)
However, It seems that my question need to be refined.

My question is

- What is your crusing formation before reaching action point or front
in tactical missions such as Barcap and ETC?
(After crossing Front, I konw the formation would be changed to tactical
formations such as spread or trail)

Actually, I'm now making some training missions for our friends, and I want to
design them as real as possible.

Thank you