It was July again and time for our Pre-Oshkosh Mason City Formation Clinic.Since AirVenture moved their start day to Monday this year, we had to also move up our start day to Friday afternoon. We use this clinic each year as a warm up and practice for flying that will be done at Oshkosh.

 

So on Friday morning, 34 airplanes launched from their far flung outposts (SoCal, AZ, NM, CO, TX, GA, FL, SC, VA, TN, OH, IL, WI, SD) and converged through the hot air of a hotter than usual July on Mason City (MCW). Some of the "regulars" rendezvoused at Hampton (HPT) to brief up a 15-ship arrival into MCW to kick off the clinic. After the hand shaking and back slapping, we got the classroom session started.

 

Doug Rozendaal, our host at Mason City, started it off with an airfield rules of the road and appropriate flying safety briefing. Doug is based at MCW and opens his large, square, "air-conditioned" hangar with bathroom, bedroom, washer/dryer, sink, refridgerator, counterspace to the clinic. Mason City has proven to be an outstanding location as it has two 150' wide runways, plenty of grass around the hangar for tie down, fast refueling, a restaurant, and light air traffic where we can conduct the clinic and practice whatever we might do at AirVenture.

 

Then I presented my standard formation primer which I give at forums such as AirVenture, Sun 'N Fun, and Regional Fly-ins. Mike Stewart (Kahuna) then followed me with his nuts and bolts seminar on the T-34 Formation Flight Manual and the RV Supplement thereto. We expect all attendees to have "memorized" beforehand the Manual and Supplement. Then we open the fire hose to ensure appropriate knowledge and understanding of formation procedures, terminology, an signals. After the classroom session, Doug then put on his famous Iowa sweet corn and BBQ ribs dinner there at the hangar. That sweet corn is DELICIOUS.

 

Saturday morning at 0800 we briefed and put the flying schedule up. We first show the newbees what formation should look like with indoctrination flights in 4-ships with them in with us. We follow that up by putting the newbees on our wing in 3-ships with a safety pilot in with them for two tame missions to get them used to the stick pressures and throttle movements. Then after lunch, we follow with more newbee training where we pick up the pace a little and start continuation training for the experienced formation pilots, with a few evaluations thrown in. After about five training missions on each pilot, we have dinner and a little liquid refreshment.

 

Sunday morning we briefed again at 0800 and counted noses of those formations pilots qualified for an ALL UP large formation. This time we had 20 pilots so qualified, so we briefed two 20-ship passes over town and the airfield followed by a split up into 4-ship echelons to initial for pitchouts to land. Then Falcon Flight took to the air for a practice of its 6-ship maneuvering routine at AirVenture.

 

After lunch it was time to say goodbye and head home or to Oshkosh. We had 12 pilots going on to Oshkosh, so I briefed up three 4-ships for the enroute and arrival into AirVenture. With our refreshed formation skills all went well and we taxiied in to RV Haven at the North end where Jeff Point and Ken Salinger met us to put us in our assigned spots for tie down.

 

Thanks to Doug Rozendaal for once again hosting us at Mason City in such fine fashion.