I learned formation flying as a "nasal radiator".  Like everything else in training, it was challenging and pretty scary at first.  After a while, it was just part of the drill (at least most of the time.)  The first time you ever drove a car on a crowded freeway, I bet you felt the same way and for most of the same reasons.  The human mind is amazingly adaptable.  Some take advantage of it and some never learn.  Try not to fly formation with the latter.  The conditions also matter.  Night formation in a combat zone gets the attention of even the most jaded ace.  Most of the time, flying formation is a lot more routine.  There's not much magic to it and, ex-miliatry pilots' egos notwithstanding, it can actually be learned and performed quite well by miserable civilians.  FWIW, as a student Navy pilot, I once almost ran my instructor into a midair.  He didn't like it much either and was unrestrained in saying so.  Even military pilots occasionally err.  If you wouldn't fly in the guy's cockpit, you definitely don't want to fly on his wing.  You also want to take it slow, work hard to learn and BRIEF EVERYTHING IN ADVANCE.  Unlike most military formation (and the T-34 training manual), Lancair formation involves quite restricted visual communication for anything other than left echalon.  You need to have a radio link at least for backup.  On second thought, forget hand signals.  They're fine in a combat zone but hopefully, SAMs will not be your problem.

I would love to be a part of any effort assuming I can get there from Oregon.  Anyone up for Redmond?