 |
|
By Tony Vallillo (5 September 2002)
Formation Flying Introduction
There has always been something exciting about flying an airplane close to another airplane on purpose. We do the same sort of thing in cars all the time, and think nothing of it. But simply to watch an act like the Thunderbirds or Blue Angels, to say nothing of actually flying like that, really gets the adrenaline flowing!
And well it should. Formation flying is one of aviation's greatest
challenges, and the ability to do it with precision and style is one of the
things that sets certain aviators apart. Whether it be the military
exhibition squadron teams, the civilian teams like the Eagles and Red Baron
team, or the Warbird pilots at Oshkosh each afternoon, you just know that
these pilots have the right stuff!
All military pilots in years gone by, and most today, have had formation training to one degree or another. Combat flying and air refueling absolutely depend upon the skill. Even the airlines occasionally do a flyby or two with the big iron in formation; to wit, American Airlines beachfront flyby upon the retirement of the 727. Any pilot can get training on his or her own, through a variety of schools and organizations nationwide.
Formating isn't normally all that hard, but it does take a lot of practice and a great deal of concentration. Of course, the welded formations of the 'Birds and the Angels, with their overlapping wingtips, are extremely difficult! But even those illustrious teams don't start the practice season flying that way. They start out loose and work their way in. Over a period of many months of daily flying, they acquire the finesse they need to make the show look easy!
Can a virtual pilot have the experience of formation flying? Well, the military pilot can, in modern simulators with dome visual systems. Even the big military iron, like the C-5, has simulators that can duplicate, to a fairly high degree of realism, the air-refueling experience.
There have been PC based flight simulators that have been capable of a mild simulacrum of formation flying, accomplished mostly by chasing the AI airplanes around. As far back as "Chuck Yeager's Advanced Flight Simulator" this was possible. Of course, there are some serious limitations even in the modern sims that allow AI chasing! For example, Flight Unlimited III is capable of putting up a skyfull of AI airplanes - a real target rich environment. But the logic and computing power that goes into the flight of these AI airplanes is limited, to say the least. They fly in a very jerky fashion when observed up close, and are quite difficult to stay close to. Then again, you are limited to being a two-ship formation, although this would be the case in any early training scenario anyway.
FS2002 has AI aircraft capability, but I confess I have always left it off, to conserve computing power. I may have to give it a try, but I suspect that it has limitations similar to those of FU III.
There was, a good many years ago, an actual simulation of the Blue Angels for the PC. I had this, but for reasons I can't recall today, it did not run well on the machine I had at the time. It was an actual formation simulation, and offered the player the "slot" position (rear plane in the diamond formation). It was very difficult, as might be expected considering the control devices of the day, and to make matters worse, it did not recognize a separate throttle input from the joystick!
All of these limitations notwithstanding, the PC could be a decent platform for beginner formation training, if software were available for that purpose.
RAF Red Arrows
Yesterday, I saw and downloaded, more out of curiosity than for any other reason, a package that offered a complete 4 or 9 ship formation experience, based upon the RAF Red Arrows demonstration team. This is a big download, and it is offered either as a single package or as a number of smaller more manageable downloads if only portions of the package will suffice.
This is not a review, in the normal sense, of this package, because I will
not comment on the excellent aircraft, visuals, panels or sounds that are
integral to the package. I do, however, want to put this offering in
perspective as it relates to the simulation of a formation flight.
What we have here is not to be confused with actual formation flying. The Red Arrow packages offer the visual experience of a formation of similar airplanes when viewed from most perspectives. But since all of the airplanes are welded (literally!) in place, what you are actually flying is a lead airplane with three (or more) welded wingmen. Very much like the ornamental owl in the Harry Potter broom download!
Now, when one is flying the lead airplane, one is not actually engaging in
formation flying. That distinction belongs to the wingmen, those stalwarts
who have to keep their airplanes precisely positioned with respect to the
leader. The lead pilot must fly very smoothly and with a great deal of
spatial orientation and situational awareness. He must consider the flight
to be a single unit, with a wingspan equal to the width of the entire
formation. Every move he makes must be introduced gradually - the military
teams actually talk their way through the show, with the leader announcing
on the radio every move of the stick. It isn't easy being the leader,
which is why he or she is usually the most experienced pilot. But it isn't
the same as station keeping, which is, for all practical purposes, what
formation flying is.
That being said, however, the Red Arrow package is still a great piece of
work! You can feel like Arrow Lead as you smoothly maneuver your formation
through the carefully choreographed gyrations of a demonstration. At least
the group loops and rolls. All of the fancy bombursts and crossovers, of
course, are beyond your reach because of the nature of the wingmen.
In case you are curious, the visual differences between this and a real military team formation are slight. The principal difference is that, when viewed from within the formation, real formation team airplanes are not welded together, but are, in fact, in constant relative motion - up and down, in and out, fore and aft. These motions are small in a really good team, usually not more than a foot or two, but they are obvious up close. From below, of course, the planes look like a single unit.
Real Formation Flying In FS2002?
Now that we see how this package works, is it possible to create a real formation simulation for FS2002? I don't know. Lots more than just a great airplane and panel would be involved. Somehow, one would have to program one or more AI airplanes of the same type into certain precise pathways, and convince the computer to animate them verrrry smoothly. Situations would have to be created that started the PC pilot at a precise point relative to the rest of the group. From there, it would be up to you, the PC pilot, to join the group or keep station. You can do this, up to a point, in Combat Flight Simulator, but of course you are likely to be shot at!I hope all of this is possible someday soon, because it's been a long time since my Air Force pilot training days, and to fly that great new T-38 in formation would bring back memories of decades ago. When all the world, myself included, was young!
Tony Vallillo
Download
the RAF Red Arrows.
avallillo@earthlink.net
