49 Ship RV Formation Sets World Record

Geico266

Geico266

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Geico
In an amazing display of skill, precision, dedication to the art of formation flying, and to sport aviation... 49 RV's (to be confirmed in 4 weeks by Guiness) set a world record Sunday flying over KC Chiefs -v- Oakland game trailing pink smoke in support of BC awareness month.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VImNBuJW3sQ

They raised $30,000 for BC research. :eek:

Well done RVer's. :D
 
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Brent Taylor of the Antique Airplane Association posted the following today:

"Americans historically and by nature have always found a way to overcome adversity. Yesterday in KC, at Arrowhead Stadium, that can do American spirit was on full display. Not able to call on our military for flyovers of events, due to budget battles and politics, a group of civilian pilots put together the largest formation flyover (49 aircraft) of any sporting event in history. Add to that the fact, these were aircraft constructed from kits (RV's) by individuals in their workshops, hangars and garages makes this even more impressive. But wait there's more !! All the aircraft trailed pink smoke as they flew over as part of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. To all who were involved in making this happen........Well done, very well done indeed !!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VImNBuJW3sQ
 
Henning said:
Can you imagine the overhead break that followed that?:rofl:
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:eek:

:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

I'm looking for the formation take off video. All planes were "based" at Lees Summit for rehersal, pre & post flight briefings, and the party after. ;)
 
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I'm always amazed at how large and close the RV community has evolved into. I wish we had that in the Glasair community. You'd be lucky to get any sort of Glasair formation flight organized.

Good for the RV guys to step up and fill in during the sequester.
 
Velocity173 said:
I'm always amazed at how large and close the RV community has evolved into. I wish we had that in the Glasair community. You'd be lucky to get any sort of Glasair formation flight organized.

Good for the RV guys to step up and fill in during the sequester.
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I can tell you first hand, you had better have your **** together even attending the formation clinics. It's all business, bring your "A" game. I hope to attend this coming year and look forward to being a part of the next WR attempt.
 
Great video,great cause . Nice to see so many pilots step up when the Govt fails.
 
The crowd at Arrow Head Stadium also set a worlds record for noise level at a sporting event.

Pretty sure it was the RV's straight pipes. ;)

:lol:
 
Here is a video from the cockpit of the "formation dresser". His job is to critique the formation just prior to fly over.

These guys are very professional and deliberate in their effort. The precision of assembling a formation and having it pass over the target at precisely the correct time is an awesome feat. They nailed it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_p-R2i13HU&feature=youtu.be

In addition to the fly over they raised $30,000 for BC research.

Richard White, Lees Summit, MO started this event after his wife battled BC twice, and won. Richard built an -8 that won Grand Champion at OSH 2 years ago. He is an amazing friend, and builder.

"During the actual flyover brief one of the guys punched the numbers on a calculator and came up with (pardon me if I don't get it exact) 9,310 horsepower with a fuel burn of 354 gph."
 
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What was the actual record they set anyway? Number of homebuilts in a formation?

EDIT: I see Guinness has it as the largest civilian formation flight. 37 at 2009 OSH. Been there, took the picture. :)
 

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Being a record is silly, I'm sure they spent more then 30 k on gas and expenses. But that many planes did look cool.
 
Having been in the middle of a 96-ship gaggle of F-111's almost 30 years ago (max effort from two wings), I must say that's not really a world record.
 
Ron Levy said:
Having been in the middle of a 96-ship gaggle of F-111's almost 30 years ago (max effort from two wings), I must say that's not really a world record.
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192 TF-30's all functioning properly in unison? Maybe that was the real record :)
 
I'm kinda "meh" about the whole RV thing, but that was impressive. Kudos to the airmanship shown....

Ron Wanttaja
 
35 AoA said:
192 TF-30's all functioning properly in unison? Maybe that was the real record :)
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Well, it was 96 out of 150 airframes on the island (or 192 out of 300 engines), and IIRC we had every single jet that wasn't hard down involved as at least a ground spare, so maybe that's not such a big deal after all. But we were pretty proud of the accomplishment anyway, and the Brits were thrilled that we were able to test their air defences with the biggest raid on their island since September 1940. We gaggled up over the North Sea, headed in, and then split up to send jets inland spread everywhere from Dover to John O'Groats.

But I do recall the days of the mid-/late-70's when you could walk down the line at Cannon AFB and see through nearly all the F-111D's there waiting for working engines.
 
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Damn, Ron, you really know how to top everything, don't you. What the heck do 49 people donating their time and money to support a good cause have that can compare to what you did on the government's dime. I am impressed as can I be.

Scott
 
Ron Levy said:
Having been in the middle of a 96-ship gaggle of F-111's almost 30 years ago (max effort from two wings), I must say that's not really a world record.
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Largest CIVILIAN formation. Military easily has the largest. 101st used to do 101 UH-60 air assault at once. Of course B-17s in WWII top that as well.
 
Velocity173 said:
What was the actual record they set anyway? Number of homebuilts in a formation?

EDIT: I see Guinness has it as the largest civilian formation flight. 37 at 2009 OSH. Been there, took the picture. :)
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What I heard is number of planes in formation over a sporting event.
 
ClimbnSink said:
Being a record is silly, I'm sure they spent more then 30 k on gas and expenses. But that many planes did look cool.
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You must work for the government. ;)

They handed a check to the local hospital for $30k, and paid their own expenses. :dunno:
 
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I wonder if they set a record for the most number of zooming . :D
Great job !
 
I am not trying to denigrate the efforts (which are superb) but exactly what record was set? The number of RV's flying in formation? There were more military aircraft flying in formation in WWII to be certain, and a hundred Bo's fly into Oshkosh in formation annually.
 
I bet B2OSH flew over a golf outing somewhere :D

seriously: great accomplishment. I was actually very impressed this was done at night/dusk.
 
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Badger said:
I bet B2OSH flew over a golf outing somewhere :D
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Agreed.... Doctors in their Bo's need to use golf courses for waypoints in the navigation area... Since that is where they are headed most of the time..:yes::D
 
Geico266 said:
I can tell you first hand, you had better have your **** together even attending the formation clinics. It's all business, bring your "A" game. I hope to attend this coming year and look forward to being a part of the next WR attempt.
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I attended an RV formation clinic in Mason City several years ago (as an observer, not flying). That stuff was not your typical GA "close enough for government work" kind of stuff. You are correct - you better bring your 'A' game to get through that clinic. It made an ILS at night to minimums with a 20kt gusting crosswind seem like a cake walk as far as the level of concentration required.

It was very interesting and I'm glad I got to take part in as much of it as I did. I still remember most of the hand signals. ;)
 
Ted DuPuis said:
Better question - did he actually fly it?
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Actually, I did, for a bit, although I didn't build it. Of course, I'll bet quite a few of the 49 pilots in the flight which started this thread didn't build their own planes, either.

But I didn't realize this was a world record only for civilian amateur-built aircraft flying over a sporting event rather than any aircraft in a formation as it originally appeared to be saying.
 
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