Bringing together 46 aircraft (plus a camera ship) from four states and territories, their formation-endorsed pilots and supporting crew, and launching them from three Melbourne airfields to form one mighty Air Armada over the top of the birthplace of the Royal Australian Air Force at Point Cook, sounds very difficult. Add that those aircraft were of dissimilar types, with difference performance ranges, and the challenge moves towards impossible. But, with a combination of determination, skill and dedication, the impossible was achieved. Two Balbos (a high-speed and a low-speed) took slightly different paths, after to-the-minute staggered take-off times, to rally overhead Point Cook at exactly the same time. Both Balbos flew together as one single formation for a few minutes before deconstructing to safely return to home airfields in their smaller formation sections.
It didn't just happen on the spur of the moment. The process started seven months earlier, when the idea was floated by the same team who had, earlier in the Covid year, taken a formation of five aircraft into Melbourne's then quiet Tullamarine Airport.
The project was called 100 Aeroplanes, because the original plan aimed for 100 aircraft overhead Point Cook to celebrate the RAAF's centenary. State border lockdowns eventually made the 100 figure unattainable, but the target was adjusted to 37, to match the world record for the largest civilian formation flight, set in the USA in 2009.
When you think about it, having one leader keeping in contact with 100 pilots isn't practical. Particularly when everyone concerned is a volunteer, and has work, family and other interests to balance. So the project was conceived with a team approach: a team of teams of teams. The idea was the brainchild of Steve Hitchen, who convinced the group who had earlier managed to organise a formation of aircraft to fly from Lilydale's grass strip into Tullamarine: the second-biggest airport in Australia. When Steve floated the idea of 100 aeroplanes flying in formation over Point Cook and the Shrine of Remembrance, the response was universally along the lines of, "that's a really stupid idea... what date did you have in mind?".
This initial Lilydale Flying Club contingent was soon expanded to incorporate representatives from Royal Victorian Aero Club and Peninsula Aero Club. These three clubs drove the 100 Aeroplanes committee, which was broken into the Operations Team and the Communications Team. The teams met weekly or fortnightly for six months, and weekend visits to Tyabb, Echuca, Kyneton and Latrobe Valley were arranged to recruit pilots. Pilot Wranglers were appointed to manage individual formation groups.
The overwhelming majority of Committee meetings were held online using Zoom. In fact, there were over 40 Zoom meetings from 2 October 2020 through to the event on 28 March 2021. Some face-to-face meetings were possible between lockdowns, and that included pilot recruitment meetings early on in the planning at Kyneton, Echuca, Latrobe Valley, Moorabbin and Tyabb.
The "paperwork" for the event was all managed through Google Drive, where the team each had access to the agenda, minutes, planning documents, diagrams, photos, sketches, and even animations. This meant that everyone was kept in the loop, and progress (or otherwise) was transparent.
Web sites explaining the event were set up for interested pilots and for wranglers. A newsletter, the Balbo Bulletin, was also sent out to Wranglers for distribution, along with posters for aero club noticeboards.
One of the first tasks of the Committee was to work out how many formation-endorsed pilots across Australia would be up for the challenge. It wasn't even clear that there were 100 suitably qualified pilots in all of Australia. The Wranglers spread the word, and pilots started to register for the event. Ultimately, over 110 pilots put their names down, although some would need to get endorsed and trained. Training sessions were consequently scheduled.
Then Covid-19 intervened, with state borders closing and people getting stranded on the wrong side of borders over Christmas.
The ALACs scheduled for March 2021, hosted by Echuca Aero Club, have been deferred until September/October 2021.
Rusty
Radio silence
Monkey cards
AAAA National Fly-in at Temora, NSW.
Not many pilots engage in formation flying. In Australia, a special licence endorsement is required, and this requires other pilots to volunteer their time (and costs) to provide the target and chase aeroplanes required to practice this special skill. Some say that formation flying is one of the most potentially dangerous types of flying, and obviously safety is uppermost in priorities. An important component of safety in formation flying is trust. When flying within a few metres of other aircraft, you need to rely on and trust the judgement and skills of the other pilots.
For example, when changing formation, an aircraft might move into a space previously occupied by another aircraft. Pilots don't take their eyes off the aircraft they are following, so can't look back to see if the space is clear. They have to trust that the other aircraft has moved. Leaders have some special responsibilities, as they have to treat the formation as one aircraft. They have to consider the aircraft on the inside and outside of the turns, and how close to an obstacle that turn might put them. They have to consider what height they need to fly on approach to ensure that the lowest aircraft doesn't fly into the ground.
Most formation flights last for 20 to 30 minutes; any longer than this, concentration starts to lapse. The Air Armada required up to two hours of formation! That presents not only a challenge to maintain concentration, but introduces the complications of muscle cramps and acute skill fatigue. For this reason, the Air Armada didn't have any formation changes, using the relatively easy Vic formation structure. In addition, some aircraft had an extra crew member, who was required to be a current pilot with controlled airspace endorsements, to help ease the workload and provide a lookout. And the formations were deliberately kept quite loose; in typical flights, the aircraft are flown much closer together.
Point Cook is adjacent to Port Phillip Bay. (In the early days of the RAAF, it also served as a seaplane base.) The route around the Bay to Point Cook necessarily included sections over water, beyond gliding distance to land. The required all pilots to wear life-jackets and carry emergency radio beacons.
Green Alpha 9, a Super Decathlon, had a special purpose. If any aircraft in the formation had problems, such as a breakdown of concentration or an engine failure, Green Alpha 9 was to break formation and guide the aircraft in trouble to the safest location. A second pilot in the Decathlon would have to know the current position at all times. This might sound obvious, but when in formation, following pilots look at nothing but the aircraft they are following. Maybe they can have a quick glance at engine instruments from time to time, but they can't look at the ground, check a chart, or even look at a GPS. Their entire concentration is on formating. Funnily enough, the pilot in, say, Green Alpha 3 position, saw only two aircraft (Green Alpha 1 in front to the right, and Green Alpha 2 directly to the right), for the entire flight, other than seeing some shapes out of the corner of an eye.
Some aircraft were equipped with smoke generators, so they could potentially leave a trail of smoke. This was used if joining formations had trouble finding a lead formation, and to help the leaders of the two Balbos easily see each other.
One practice cancelled
30 January: 21 aircraft
28 January: 30 aircraft
14 March: 30 aircraft