It was for a Formation Flying course with Ultimate High - a company set up by ex RAF jet jocks (most of them ex Red Arrows).
The course was brilliant fun - we had theory in the morning - then a briefing and finally flying in the afternoon. A 40min sortie with a two ship Bulldog formation.
The Bulldog is a surprisingly nice aircraft - for a trainer - I was expected it to be like a Cessna or Piper but it is lovely on the controls and has great visibility from the bubble canopy.
I flew lead for the first half then switched to wing. What great fun. We tried echelon left and right and then line astern, plus a break away and rejoin. Then into tail chase for a couple of wingovers and barrel rolls. Finally heading back to the airfield for a run in and break.
Highly recommended if you've never done it - formation flying is a great challenge and a great buzz when you get it right.
Later in the day I decided that I just had to have a go in their Extra 300 as well.
This was a 35min sortie and what a beast the Extra is!
I flew it for about half of the sortie - it is extremely sensitive on the controls - a very light touch is needed. The roll rate is something else!
We did a few basic maneuvers - loop, roll, cubans, vertical roll etc. then Mark demoed an accelerated flat spin, followed by an inverted flat spin - never done one of those before!
Towards the end of the sortie I got 'Greeners' (Mark Greenfield) to demo some tumbling maneuvers as I hadn't done anything like that before. They are pretty disorientating. I liked the Roulade best. A double forward tumble from a knife edge. The 'cravat' is also good - maybe I can try one in the Twister when it's done.
Finally Greeners headed back to the airfield and did an impromptu display for about 5 mins - really throwing it around!
On landing the visibility forward is awful - so a curving approach is best.
All in all a great day out.
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| Line Astern |
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| Run in and break |
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| The Extra 300 - beast! |
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