Another perspective:

 

I have flown to enough places with friends in loose collections (not quite formations) that I have an interest in understanding the formal aspects of formation flying.  I am not interested in show quality "Blue Angel" activities.

 

I have no interest in flying 2 feet off someone's wing nor having them 2 feet off mine. But, I want to be better in the vicinity of other planes.

 

Recently, I have been communicating with Dan Schaeffer about the dead band in the pitch and roll controls as a consequence of loose hinges and lash in the many push rod pivots and bearing connections.  Lancairs make us better pilots or else.  I thought I was a reasonably skilled 2000 hour pilot (700 in my 320) -- until this last weekend.  With my autopilot controller in the shop I had the opportunity to fly out to Hastings NE twice, picking up my son for his mother's birthday and returning him the next day. That's 10 hours of hand flying in smooth air.  It sounds simple, doesn't it?

 

Sitting comfortably, with my arm supported by my leg and lightly encircling the stick with two fingers, my scan was instrument-like in the carefully trimmed airplane.  All for naught.  10 flight hours of frustration.  Honing in on significant indicators, CDI, digital track data, attitude indicator, DG, airspeed, altitude and VSI and finally experimenting with the precise indication of certain instruments still resulted in wandering.

 

Sometime using the vertical bar and slot at the top of the attitude indicator, but more often using the hairline over the DG bug, I was not able to hold a precise heading for very long.  The slightest distraction, conversation or a peek out the window and oops, 3 degrees off the heading.  Combine this with careful positioning the the horizontal bar on the attitude indicator, the altitude needle and airspeed (VSI is overly damped), and yet there were pitch variations leading to 50-100 foot altitude deviations with up to 4-5 kts airspeed changes.

 

I'm not sure I should be in close formation with anyone, but I would like to know whether it's me or the plane's setup that makes me think I am standing on one leg atop a beach ball.

 

Anyone else have these experiences?