Twelve Airplanes In Close Formation Is A Great Way To Spend A Saturday Morning

By: Tom Patton

Notification came Friday afternoon at the Sebring Light Sport Expo. I'd have an opportunity to fly with Team Aerodynamix, the former Team RV, during their media ride Saturday morning. It would be my first experience flying close formation, let alone in that large a group of airplanes.

I was assigned to fly with Mike "Kahuna" Stewart, the flight lead and founder of Team Aerodynamix. "Kahuna" finished his RV- Super 8 in 2006. Prior to that airplane, he flew an RV-6. Stewart has over 4,000 hours in his logbook, is an FFI (Formation Flying Incorporated) check pilot and has served as Chief Instructor for hundreds of formation student pilots around the country, according to the Team Aerodynamix website.

Also flying with the team Saturday morning were several sponsors, volunteers from the show, and airport employees. After a group briefing, we all went to our assigned airplanes, strapped them on, and headed to the runway.

It was a beautiful morning to be in the air, and the team went through many of the maneuvers they perform during shows around the country. Noticing a triangle drawn on the Plexiglas of the canopy of Stewart's airplane, I assumed that it was how he kept his airplane aligned during formation flight. But he told me that the triangle was for aerobatics, and then shifted into instructor mode. He said in the kind of formation flying we were doing, he focused on a couple of specific spots on the airplane next to him, and said "you fly through the spot."

Flying in the "stinger" position, I got a bit more than some of the others in the group. Pulling no more than a couple of gs over the course of the 15 minute flight, "Kahuna" gave me some outstanding camera angles of the other airplanes in the formation. Some of that will turn up in a future feature on Aero-TV. "The good news is, you're not scaring me," I said after a couple of steep turns. "Then I'm obviously not trying hard enough," he retorted, but kept the flying safe and sane.

"Great way to spend a morning," Stewart said as we taxied back to the Sebring Regional terminal building. "I quit my full time job at IBM last year to do this (Team Aerodynamix) full time ... and I realized I should have done it a lot sooner."

After the Sebring show, Stewart said that the airplanes will all be pulled down and serviced, annualed, and readied for the upcoming airshow season. Their performance schedule is posted on their website.

FMI: www.teamaerodynamix.com