An impromptu formation flight with an Edgley Optica

Cool! I always though they were neat airplanes. Not an airplane you think of somebody "just owning."
 
Looks like a little plane till you read that they have a 540 under the hood
 
I briefly worked with a guy that helped design the Edgely Optica. Interesting guy.

I’d love a ride in one of those someday. Or to do some air to air photos of one.
 
Been intrigued by the Optica since I first saw one decades ago in the Mark Hamill movie, Slipstream...

 
The title of this thread scares me. “inpromptu formation flight” tells me there was no prior planning 91.111 requires agreement with the pic of each aircraft. Yes, saying on the radio “I’m joining up ok” may meet the letter of the law, it in no way makes it a safe operation. Safe Formation flight requires proper training and a through breifing before flight. The comment I’ve got a tower and need to climb tells me there was not much of a brief done. Were join up procedures briefed? what about loss of separation and breakout procedures? Unexpected traffic? I don’t mean to sound like a total a.. but people get killed doing this. Formation flight is difficult and demanding, and very unforgiving. Please get good training before doing it and plead brief it properly.
 
unsafervguy said:
The title of this thread scares me. “inpromptu formation flight” tells me there was no prior planning 91.111 requires agreement with the pic of each aircraft. Yes, saying on the radio “I’m joining up ok” may meet the letter of the law, it in no way makes it a safe operation. Safe Formation flight requires proper training and a through breifing before flight. The comment I’ve got a tower and need to climb tells me there was not much of a brief done. Were join up procedures briefed? what about loss of separation and breakout procedures? Unexpected traffic? I don’t mean to sound like a total a.. but people get killed doing this. Formation flight is difficult and demanding, and very unforgiving. Please get good training before doing it and plead brief it properly.
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Yeah, we crashed and died, fortunately our foolishness didn’t result in any children dying, so I’m allowed to post on POA. I did go to hell after all or I wouldn’t be forced to hang out here.
 
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unsafervguy said:
The title of this thread scares me. “inpromptu formation flight” tells me there was no prior planning 91.111 requires agreement with the pic of each aircraft. Yes, saying on the radio “I’m joining up ok” may meet the letter of the law, it in no way makes it a safe operation. Safe Formation flight requires proper training and a through breifing before flight. The comment I’ve got a tower and need to climb tells me there was not much of a brief done. Were join up procedures briefed? what about loss of separation and breakout procedures? Unexpected traffic? I don’t mean to sound like a total a.. but people get killed doing this. Formation flight is difficult and demanding, and very unforgiving. Please get good training before doing it and plead brief it properly.
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Dually noted, Karen.
 
Salty said:
Yeah, we crashed and died, fortunately our foolishness didn’t result in any children dying, so I’m allowed to post on POA. I did go to hell after all or I wouldn’t be forced to hang out here.
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As long as no dogs were harmed we're good. :D
 
unsafervguy said:
The title of this thread scares me. “inpromptu formation flight” tells me there was no prior planning 91.111 requires agreement with the pic of each aircraft. Yes, saying on the radio “I’m joining up ok” may meet the letter of the law, it in no way makes it a safe operation. Safe Formation flight requires proper training and a through breifing before flight. The comment I’ve got a tower and need to climb tells me there was not much of a brief done. Were join up procedures briefed? what about loss of separation and breakout procedures? Unexpected traffic? I don’t mean to sound like a total a.. but people get killed doing this. Formation flight is difficult and demanding, and very unforgiving. Please get good training before doing it and plead brief it properly.
Click to expand...

Seriously? By this logic and comparing with what we see in the video 2 planes on final to parallel runways would need formation training and a thorough preflight briefing.
 
upload_2020-6-25_6-44-5.png

I have no formation experience (and don't particularly want any) but this looks closer than most parallel runways, no?
 
tiger said:
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I have no formation experience (and don't particularly want any) but this looks closer than most parallel runways, no?
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The optica is a big plane, and blowing up an image from a fisheye camera like a GoPro results in deceptive appearances. Look a few frames later in the video when it switches back to the wing camera (which is much closer to the optica) and it looks miles away.

That said, I was flying with other pilots I’m very familiar with, and have flown with many times and have flown formation with many times.

We did use fingers though. :p Sorry, I couldn’t resist that one, it was a joke, don’t go nuts.
 
Funny thing is, I had to zoom so much in post and lose so much resolution, I told the guys after the flight they didn’t get in close enough.
 
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