Martin Stoner held the first Europa formation training coarse over the Bank
Holiday week end.
Besides myself, Bill Wynn, Peter Kember and Mike Smith were the students.
Martin as you no doubt know is an ex Red Arrows leader, so along with one
of his old RAF friends Pete Thorn (who is also a CAA examiner) as
instructors, we felt very humble, honoured and most important, safe.
After detailed briefings we each took turns at leading, and wing man
stations, each sortie lasted about an hour. The level of concentration was
unbelievable and we all felt totally drained after each sortie but at the
same time on an amazing high. After two full days of training we were up to
solo standard for Echelon formation, Break and re join and position
changes. So we left Kemble on Monday morning with a stream take off, and
joined up for a formation flight back home. The weekend was a resounding
success, and we all felt we had experienced another dimension of flight.
Martin hopes to organise more formation training weekends in the future, so
if you want to add another skill to your flying, then I highly recommend
you get in touch with him. Miles, if your out there it would make a good
article for the Flier, book yourself a slot!
Jim Naylor No 39
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