flyride wrote:
Several folks have stated that the AD pilot should not have lost sight of the Mustang - that's utter silliness, the AD's pilot head immediately went forward as he is the temporary flight lead and responsible for clearing the flight path as soon as the Mustang pulled. If you can't find the preceding aircraft, knock it off.
I was not saying that the Skyraider pilot had to physically keep his eyes on the Mustang the entire time. Of course not -- looking away from your lead to scan another portion of the sky isn't the same as being 'blind'. In fact, there are many formation positions outside of close/fingertip where I specifically WANT my wingman to look somewhere other than lead's aircraft, clearing for the formation, looking for traffic/threats, etc.
Awareness of where your flightmate is by other means (contractual deconfliction, procedural deconfliction, use of radio for SA, etc) is perfectly acceptable in place of physically having your eyeballs on the other aircraft. There are plenty of times where aircraft in a formation can be completely detached from one another and performing thier own maneuvering, and the wingman is STILL responsible for deconfliction (all types of multi-aircraft dogfights fall into this category, plus formation operations on a bombing range, etc). That does not in any way mean that once the Mustang pulled up and away that the Skyraider was no longer responsible for his formation contract. Formations aren't split up in the break unless specifically briefed as such. They're still very much responsible for lead and wing contracts until the engines are shut down in the parking area.
While you're correct that once he had the 'nav lead' of the #3 aircraft, that he was *also* responsible for clearing his flight path for the two remaining aircraft, that doesn't alleviate him of that formation responsibility to know where his lead is AND avoid becoming a conflict (as well as his basic responsibility of clearing his own flight path).
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ellice_island_kid wrote:
I am only in my 20s but someday I will fly it at airshows. I am getting rich really fast writing software and so I can afford to do really stupid things like put all my money into warbirds.
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