formation. Let’s say I’m number two. My eyes
stay
on the lead aircraft. I
never
let my eyesmove away, even for a fraction of a second. Where am I looking? A star is painted on both sides of the fuselage (the main body) of the T-38. The star has a background of two stripes. The trailing edge of the T-38 wingtip has a red or green light on its tip (starboard green, port red). As number two (or three), flying beside and slightly behind and below number one, I will fly so that the wingtip light of number one appears to remain in the middle of the star on the side of his airplane. (Everybody except lead is doing the same thing.) When lead starts a left turn and his wing starts rising, my aircraft must rise so that the light stays in the star. An imaginary straight line runs from my eye, through the wingtip light, and to the middle of the star. This position will keep me neither too far forward nor too far back, neither too high nor too low. This fingertip formation enables us to fly through clouds while maintaining visual contact. Sometimes to see lead well in bad weather, I may have to “tuck it in” so that our wings overlap. In order to keep the proper distance away from his aircraft, I first learn the “right picture” of his exhaust ports—not too round, not too oval. Later I know by feel.
In fingertip formation we communicated by hand signals, as mentioned, and also by a very slight wiggling or bouncing of lead’s aircraft. For example, if lead’s tail end suddenly fishtailed a little bit (accomplished with rudder pedals), we knew to move into “route” formation, that is, loose formation. At that time we could quickly look inside our own aircraft to check fuel remaining, engine temperature, and so forth, and then look back at lead (though number four always looks at number three, who relaysmessages from lead when necessary).
When the pilot of the lead aircraft brought his thumb to his mouth in a drinking motion while the flight was in route formation, that meant “check your fuel.” We then each signaled with upheld fingers how many hundreds of pounds of fuel we had left. The flight lead planned maneuvers according to the least amount of fuel among us.
When lead gently rocked his wings, we moved back into fingertip formation.
The lead pilot had to be extraordinarily smooth with the stick and throttles. An erratic movement—especially up or down—could set off a chain reaction.
If we were a
two
-ship formation—I was lead, and you were flying on my right wing—and I suddenly did a quick little dip of my left wing, that would be a signal for a “cross-under.” You’d pull off a bit of power, drop back, add power, cross under just behind my exhaust ports (on the very tail end of the aircraft), and then add power again as you pulled up into position on my left wing—where number three would fly in a four-ship formation. The idea is to cross under quickly.
Another kind of formation—not fingertip—is called close trail. It can be flown in four-ship or two-ship formation. If I were your lead and I suddenly did a little porpoise with my nose (moving it up and down), you would know to slip back behind me and fly with the nose of your aircraft just behind and below my exhaust ports, and you would stay there no matter what I did. For example, I, the lead, might fly a loop or a barrel roll and you’d stay right there. And that would be hard work—for you. If, as numbertwo, three, or four in close-trail formation, I could not feel the jet exhaust of the aircraft ahead skimming the top of my vertical stabilizer—the highest point on my aircraft—then I was flying too low. While flying close trail, or fingertip for that matter, a pilot learns the skills and limits of a wingman or leader the way I imagine competitive rowers must learn the skills and limits of their teammates.
Sometimes the formation missions were a bit scary. An instructor might have to take over an erratic aircraft. Someone might be
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