A wee Saturday Morning Formation Flight

Up and at 'em!

At the crack of dawn on Saturday, Mark and I struggled out of a very comfy king size hotel bed and made a beeline for the mini Keurig that adorned the hutch in our room. Within 15 minutes we had met our flying friends in the hotel lobby and were bound for the airport in the courtesy car that Atlantic Aviation had kindly lent us overnight.

First stop... Breakfast in the airport restaurant and a little time to infuse more caffeine, while taking in some low level airplane noise - which we all seemed to enjoy. Go figure!

Then it was show time. At 8 AM sharp the group met at the large corporate hangar that was our headquarters. There was a group safety and organizational briefing and formation partners were arranged. Then the large group broke into smaller groups and we began to plan Saturdays first flight.

For George Zukauckas, the day had finally come. He had narrowly missed out on being in my pictures in 2012. Then technical issues kept him away from the 2013 formation flying clinic and his pictures again eluded him. This weekend, the formation flying clinic of 2015, he was my priority and I was looking forward to making good on my promise to him.

To get the best pictures of George, I asked to fly with the lead of his group. Maj. Gen. Hank was my pilot and I knew from the first minute I met him that he was smart, experienced and meant business. Quite intimidating... Until I got to know him a bit more. Quite a sweetie actually!

Hank had the best windows I've ever had to privilege to take pictures out of and he looked rather pleased when I told him so. Very soon, we were speeding down the runway together...

Position 1/Lead: Major General Hank C
Position 2: George Z
Position 3: Joe P in the twin
Position 4: Kevin C

 

Pretty nice morning for a flight, huh?!

And what a great group of pilots/men. I was feeling pretty lucky!

Bonanza's to Oshkosh Training Camp - March 6-8 in Phoenix

It had been a couple of years, but the call of Oshkosh got the better of us in earlier in 2015 and Mark and I signed up. Beechtalkers, Bonanza drivers and blog readers alike know what this means... A requirement of participation in the Bonanza's to Oshkosh formation flight, is completing a formation flying clinic earlier the same year.

This year, we reviewed options and flew southwest to Phoenix on March 6th for the 3 day event.
Maybe you remember the Formation Clinic posts I wrote in 2013 and 2013?
2012
Friday 1
Saturday 1
Saturday 2
Saturday 3
Safety Class
Sunday 
2013
Friday 
Saturday 1
Saturday 2
Sunday

After the snowiest February on record, I held my breath as I  checked daily, the forecast for flying out of Colorado. We asked and the universe provided. As Friday dawned, the sky was clear and starry. A full moon set over the Flatirons about 6:30 AM as I drove toward Longmont's Vance Brand Airport. It was 21 degrees cold.

At hangar #68 pre-heating was well underway. Mark had recently acquired a new tool: Switchbox. This new fandangled powerstrip is remotely controlled via a smartphone app, and allowed Mark to plug in an engine heater and turn it on from home, the night before the flight. About an hour before we arrived at the airport, off went the engine heater and on went the cabin heater. I can't even begin to tell you how happy that made me when I arrived! Toasty warm inside and out made for a pleasant pre-flight inspection and low drama luggage loading. We were on our way and still warm at 7 AM, just as the sun peaked over the horizon.

Up, up and away. The early morning sun bathed N303B as we made our way south along the foothills, over Boulder and down towards Castle Rock. Already on oxygen, we then headed southwest behind Pike's Peak and toward Taos, climbing to about 10,500'. 

The air was smooth and pretty soon we were enjoying a morning beverage service. Hot coffee... Sparkling Rocky Mountains... Just one finger on the yoke as we hurried toward Arizona, at times noting a 200 mph ground speed.

A short 3 hours later, we taxied onto the ramp at Saint Johns Industrial Park Airport, AZ. Fuel stop! Us and 5 experimental aircraft lined up for fueling. They too were off on an air adventure... A fly in not too far away. I took the opportunity to shove some of my old dollar bills at the vending machines. Having forgotten our in-flight snacks, Mark and I were becoming ravenous. Who says old and chewy rice crispy treats are bad for you?! We washed the sticky rice down with peanut butter Snickers and called it good enough.

The flight to Deer Valley Airport in Phoenix seemed like it would be a walk in the park. It was barely 11 AM and we knew an hour from now, we'd be enjoying the camaraderie of old friends and new, lunch in a restaurant with a runway view and the warmth of an 85 degree Arizona day. I let my enthusiasm get away on me and in a short time, fell behind in my preparedness.

Fifty miles out I called for flight following. Phoenix' airspace was crowded. At least 6 different airports around the periphery and that Class B airspace through the middle of the area. Help with traffic to watch out for, was useful. What I didn't think about soon enough, was communicating with ATC long before I wanted to land at Deer Valley. So at 12 miles out, when I tried to get a word in edge-ways on the radio and failed, panic arose. We were 9 miles out before there was 5 seconds of quiet on the radio in which I could begin communication - And yes, the controller had some advice for me about that! 

Was it just me or did 80% of the pilots checking in seem to have Asian accents so strong I couldn't understand them!? Multiple runways with left and right traffic patterns, LOTS of other traffic landing and departing, a Bonanza flight of 3 practicing and helicopters "on the go".  Did I mention panic? I was definitely not used to all of this. My home airport of Longmont is uncontrolled. So are most of the surrounding airports. This here cacophony was highlighting my lack of experience and practice and not in a "good to know" kinda way!

Safely on the ground 10 minutes later, I was tired and hungry and very glad to be switching roles to "photographer" for the duration of the clinic. Yep, I fly to AZ and back... Mark flies formation. I take pics. 

The 2015 B2Osh Formation Flying Clinic had begun!

It was warm and lovely in Phoenix. Flowers and picturesque cacti adorned the airport, smiling, familiar faces greeted us. And we were just in time for lunch. :-)

Then the Friday afternoon flight was discussed. Everyone broke into pairs or triples and the briefing began.

Guess what? The first thing I learned at the Bonanza's to Oshkosh training camp was that Deer Valley Airport was the busiest general aviation airport in the country. Hmmm... Probably just as well I didn't know that ahead of time actually. The second thing I learned was yes, there are a ton of Asian pilots in the sky here... Because there is a Chinese flight training school and a South Korean flight training school at Deer Valley. To top it off, Deer Valley is where Air Traffic Controllers come to train too!!!  All of a sudden not feeling so bad about my wee panic. Sounds justified to me!

I digress. We came here to fly formation and that's exactly what happened.

Flight One: The air was hot and bumpy but it was fun, fun, fun!

I flew with George.

Off one wing we had Sean, an experienced commercial pilot, but new to formation flying. Mark was his safety pilot. They really did a great job!

My job was simple. Enjoy the flight, get to know the pilots, capture their skill and aircraft as and when possible, while not distracting from the learning - Why we are really here. I soaked up every minute of it. Again grateful for the chance to fly with experienced pilots and appreciative of the knowledge transfer that often comes in an osmosis kind of way.

George had my admiration and of course, appreciation. My first formation flight of a weekend can be the hardest... Putting to rest all the anxiety that comes with defying everything you were taught in order to get a private pilot license is not as easy as it sounds.  Not only does George have the skills and calm demeanor, but his airplane has great picture taking windows - Bonus!

We finished the Friday afternoon flight with this landing:

Dallice's footnote: I don't turn around in my seat to take pictures at touchdown. I'm rather attached to my spine and had big plans for it this weekend. These photos were taken just prior to George touching down and I think are a really good illustration of 2 Bonanzas landing in formation within a second of each other.

We taxied off the runway to the ramp and George gave the signal to shut down engines together. Beautiful. Just as it was briefed.

The weekend was off to a good start and I was excited to be surrounded by such good pilots, intelligent thinkers and fastidious planners. My happy place. :-)