Formation
    Welocome to Formation Training. Here in formation training you will be
learning all about different formation, from the situations you should use them
in, too how far you should be from the other jets in the formation. By the end
of the training course you will be able to get into all formation and know what
situations to use them in. A instructor pilot will be assigned to you for this
training course that will teach you this. You are to study the formations below
before you get up it the air with your instructor pilot. There will be a test given
out at the end, along with a formation flight with your assigned instructor pilot
and 2 other pilot with a 1st Lieutenant rank. The test will be a 15-question
test, to get a passing score on it you must get 13/15 or higher correct. After you have completed this test you are to send your completed version back to your
assigned instructor pilot, so he can grade it. After he has graded it he will
inform you of your score. If you didn’t get a passing score you will be able to
take the test over within a 2-day period. If you did receive a passing score your assigned instructor pilot will schedule a date to fly with you, he will also make
a note on the 421st message board stating that he will be doing a formation
flight with 1 of his cadets and he is asking for some 1st Lieutenant pilots to
reply to the message and say they will be able to do this flight on the date
schedule and time. During the flight your assigned instructor pilot will take the
lead jet and you will take the #3 jet. He will tell the flight to get into different
formations and he will be watching you while you maneuver your jet into the
different positions. After the flight your assigned instructor pilot will contact
you to tell what he thinks of your formation skills. He may say he wants to
work with you a little more or he may say you did good and he think you are
ready to go on the emergency procedure training. If tells you that he feels you
are ready, he will contact the flight training officer. After he has done this the
flight training officer will assign you to a instructor pilot for emergency
procedures training.
 

Instructor Pilots

                                          IP           Cadet

Kodiak
Kromander
Phoenix
Zackman


Formations

Spread: Moves the flight into a the formation shown below. This
             formation is excellent for penetrating a highthreat area
             because the flight goes throught the threat envelop
             simultaneously, which forces the bad guys to pick a single
             target.

Arrowhead: Moves the flight into the formation shown below. The
                  arrowhead has a good and a bad side to it. The good
                  part is that the element can clear the 6 o' clocks of the
                  flight leader and his wingmen, But the bad part is the
                  element doesn't have anyone to clear their 6 o' clocks,
                  so there are very vonerable while in this formation. This
                  formation is good for both air-to-air and air-to-ground
                  missions at all altitudes

Box: Moves the flight into the formation shown below. The box
        formation is good for low altitude ingress. The box formation is
        easy to maneuver and provides great 6 o' clock coverage for the
        flight. In addition, the training element can easily provide
        support to the lead element if the lead element is engaged.
        box is also a good air-to-ground attack formation since there is
        built-in spacing between elements.

Wedge: Moves the flight into the formation shown below. Use the
                     wedge formation when you anticipate a lot of high G
                     maneuvering. This formation will keep the flight members from
             coming into conflict with each other. The wedge formation is
             very good for air-to-air attacks when you are planning to
             split up a four-ship flight. This is not a good high-altitude
             formation for shooting radar missiles, because the

      element is trailling and will have to fire missile through the
             flight leader and his wingmans position.
 
 

Res Cell: Moves the flight into the formation shown below. This
               formation hides the number of aircraft in your formation
               while you are in a air-to-air flight. It is useful when you are
               about 20 mile or more from enemy fighters. You should not
               be in res cell when you enter a turning flight because too
               many jets are packed together.

Trail: Moves the fight into the formation shown below. The trail
        Formation is used exclusively for air-to-ground attack. The
        problem with this formation is that in a air-to-ground situation the
        element is not being supported by any other jet in the formation.
        The element is, therefore very vulnerable to enemy fighters.

Ladder: Moves the flight into the formation shown below. The ladder
             formation is very similar to the trail formation in its application.
             This formation should be used primarily to attack ground
             targets. By having all of the flight members come in at
             different altitudes, you complicate thing for the defenses.

Stack: Moves the flight into the formation shown below. A stack
           formation makes it difficult for enemy fighters to sort and
           attack your formation. The disadvantage of this formation is that
           it is very difficult to maneuver. It is also hard for fighters in a
           stack formation to provide mutual support to each other
           because of the altitude difference.