jex

Is anyone interested in seriously making a formation flying team here at TG? Applicants will need to attend regular practice sessions and be comitted. Our work will be towards making an air display movie for the members of TG. It will be hard (but rewarding) work.

This saturday will be the open day. Don't worry if you can't make it just reply to this thread. The plan of action will be as follows;

Basic Training

Basic training will consist of getting used to the aircraft (F15C). We will be learning the necessary cockpit instruments, how to turn the aircraft, use of the rudder and throttle. We will not be using height or speed hold at any point in our training. Airbrakes are out to unless they are part of a designated manoeuvre.

We'll practise some loose formation flying to with some turns but nothing serious. We'll also go over basic flight dynamics, what it means to be in the same 'plane' and what 'pure', 'lead' and 'lag' pursuit are. Flying with our view off centre will need to be addressed as well. Since our situational awareness is severely limited we need to learn this.

Also we need to go over our SOP's for radio comms and runway taxiing. We also need to assign our wing positions.

To aid us all in the use of these techniques I will make a simple in-flight refuelling mission that I'll post up later. When using the mission make sure you avoid speed and altitude hold. Once you have successfully refuelled, try keeping formation with the KC-10 and also manouvre around it. This will help you understand how your plane responds to a lead aircraft.

Intermediate Training

Here we will take our basic training a stage further. We will now concentrate on holding some basic formations and performing some slow turns. Turns are trickyer because the planes on the inside of the turn need to travel slower and the planes on the outside of the turn need to travel faster.

We will also explore the basics of turning 'in plane' with all other aircraft (and this will lead onto the more complex flight manoeuvres).


Expert Training

At this stage we should all be proficient with holding a formation and now we need to start the process of changing formations in flight. We will also explore the beginnings of the more complex manoeuvres.


Ace Training

This is where we put everything we have learnt into practice and start learning the complex flight manoeuvres. This will be the hardest part of the training. Once we have the manoeuvres down, we then move onto the finale - the 42nd Tac-G Air Show!



Don't want to fly but still wish to participate?

Then join as camera crew. It will be near impossible for us to take screen shots and anyone out there wishing to capture our attempts are more than welcome.

Anyone wishing to spectate is also encouraged but please keep off comms whilst we are training.


Well there we have it. I sincerely hope enough of you are interested to give this a go. I must stress though if we don't have the committment from the start this venture will fail. Practice will be one day a week (and will likely fall over the weekend). This will be for a couple of hours at least. If practice is missed then the whole team suffers as others have to catch up. If you miss a practice though all is not lost. Hook up with a team member to show you what we went over.

Remember this is a team venture. We look after each other, not ourselves. If someone needs help, make time to help them. If someone doesn't understand something, we keep practicing until they do. We're here to have fun still but this is harder than normal stuff so we need a serious head about it.

Keep an eye on this thread as additions may be made. If so they will have an [EDIT] tag next to it with the date. Check regularly as it may not show marked as a new message on the forums.

One final note is this thing takes off (hahaha), we need a flash name for the flight team so put your thinking caps on.

Hope you can make it

Attached Files

	Flight team.zip (4.0 KB, 3 views)

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Jex

fr1j0l3

I'm all over this.

I got the flying around part down, it's shooting other stuff that I can't seem to grasp.

jex

Good stuff - no shooting involved, just pure flying skills

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Jex

=Sarc=

I'm down for some formation flying! I'll try the refuelling but every time I try online, somebody seems to crash into the KC-10.

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JO Guides & Tutorials
Team Element - It's who you game with.

Riyker

Zoom zoom zoom!

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Fanatik

Count me in...

USN_Squid

I want to give this a go too. I work most weekends, so if conflicts arrive I will be more than happy to be the camera guy or alternate, etc.

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jex

It shouldn't be a prob if you miss practices as other flight team members should be around to help you. I must stress that we need to think as a team here and be prepared to take out time to help anyone who has missed out on training.

We are not all going to be able to make every practice - that's not possible but we do need to turn up if we say we are. I will always be on call to help as my days a pretty much free. If you see me on TS playing another game come and get me - the flight team takes a priority here as far as I'm concerned. Failing that book time with someone and meet up to practice.

I'm currently working on a training manual which I will make available to all members. This will go over what we need to know in an effort to promote better understanding of what we need to achieve. It will also provide the structure we need to accomplish the task at hand. I am by no menas an expert at this and I would appreciate members adding to it or changing parts.

There will be no strict training schedule per se. We will practice in a certain order but will only move on once every member has become proficient.

I know I'm going on here but I am trying to make sure everyone knows the committment needed. I don't want to put anyone off and I don't want you to think that this is some strict nazi regime in place but do realise that real flight teams practice for months on end to get things right. One pilot out of formation means the whole flight is out of formation.

Lastly, for practice I think you can make a mission that has an aerobatic plane fly that you can try and hold position with. I'll look into making a mission for this. If you want a specific mission made to help you out, give me a shout.

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Jex

jex

OK so I need some times for tomorrow's meet. I'm only available until 3pm EST so Ideally I'd like to start around 1PM EST but can easily do earlier if so required.

Remember this is only a meet to have a chat, do a bit of flying and try recording some tracks online (to see how they record and play). If you can't make it this weekend then don't worry - just put down your name on this thread. Real practice will begin next week.

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Jex

=Sarc=

I can make 1PM.

fr1j0l3

1pm works 4 me

USN_Squid

ditto

678910

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Le3z0r

Hey count me in, if not flying I will be a camera crew member.

I can fly, not the best at it, but I can fly. Your training programs there look to be great to get me up to level, and I'm real excited to get started. But if you want me on camera crew I'm happy with that too.

jex

I've attached the missions we'll use on the server for now. It's got 9 slots and 3 KC-10's to refuel at. Le-three-zee-zero-or Or is that Lee-three-pee-oh LMAO!!

Where's Artoo? hehehehehe

Anyway where was I, oh yeah, Le3z0r that is just going over roughly what we'll cover, it will be more intense than that. If you want to join your welcome to, just make sure you can make most practices

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Jex

Shad0wRIP

Just posting my interest....as most of you know over the summer i won't be on awhole heck of alot, with that in mind are you planning any kind of schedule for practice or such? i'd be willing to dedicate 1 or 2 nights a month to this over the summer and more once the nice weather comming to a close.