He should NOT have trouble flying with you.I have @ 6a with 0-360 with an c/s and friend has a 8 with fixed pitch. he is an experienced formation guy but has trouble flying with me. Both have SAME ENGINE. Could it be his prop.?
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Well said!He should NOT have trouble flying with you.
Either you are changing power as lead too aggressively OR he is not anticipating enough on turns, rejoins etc.
it CAN be done.
The basis for my comments is "back in the day ..." when I did my formation "check-ride" with Stu McCurdy, I had an 160 HP O-320 with a Fixed Pitch Ed Sterba wood prop. Everyone else in the flight had at least 180HP and constant speed props.
Now, the PROBLEM is that with the fixed pitch prop (and less HP), even with the smoothest of leads, you have to LEARN how much anticipation of putting power in and taking it out is required. If your lead is not sensitive to that, then it might be near impossible to stay in position. Lead HAS to be smooth AND consistent.
Later I switched to a Hartzell constant speed prop and flew with Team RV/Team AeroDynamix. At that time I was the only guy with 160 HP! So Mike Stewart had to design the airshow around the LEAST amount of HP available to each segment. As lead, he had 260 HP (!!!!!) but he led guys in "Alpha" who had "only" 180 HP.
Try this:
As lead set a MAXIMUM straight and level speed of say 140kts. (Maybe even try 130 kts to get the feel for what am saying). Go out and do some turns with him on your wing. In the beginning announce that you are about to "turn to the right" or "turn to the left". After a few of these, he will get the FEEL for how much anticipation HIS setup requires. He WILL have to "jam the throttle forward" and wait for some "spool up" time and then be prepared to take it out before he thinks followed by a repeat to find the sweet spot.
It may be frustrating in the beginning, but he will get there and be an even BETTER formation pilot than he currently is.
It CAN be and HAS BEEN done. If I can do it, I am sure that he (the two of you) can.
"And one more thing ..."Well said!
James is absolutely correct, and I wish I had completed my response with his point. In FFI we fly a lot of pilots with fixed pitch props, and for pre-sortie academic-style briefs we talk about the need to anticipate, when to anticipate, etc. As flight leads we back off our maneuvering speed to about 120-130 KIAS. The radio call announcing the turn helps.
Flying formation with a constant speed prop and carb gives the throttle shaft and bushing a real workout also. Mine have been replaced three times over the years.Flying formation with my fixed pitch was always a constant effort of anticipation. My throttle cable always got a real good workout.
You haven't really given much information about what he has trouble with. What phase of flight give him problems? What speeds are you using for the flight? What maneuvers? You say he's an "experienced formation guy" but what kind of experience? Has he done a lot of FFI formation in RV's or is his experience elsewhere? As others have stated, there are lots of carded FFI pilots that regularly fly fixed pitch aircraft with higher powered constant speed aircraft with no issues.I have @ 6a with 0-360 with an c/s and friend has a 8 with fixed pitch. he is an experienced formation guy but has trouble flying with me. Both have SAME ENGINE. Could it be his prop.?
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Many years ago I flew a fixed pitch RV-4 to a clinic...sold it and bot c/s RV-8 the next week...workload on fixed pitch is infinitely more. like night and day. Flew 20 years on Team Rv and others with that fabulous C/S prop.I have @ 6a with 0-360 with an c/s and friend has a 8 with fixed pitch. he is an experienced formation guy but has trouble flying with me. Both have SAME ENGINE. Could it be his prop.?
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Words to fear. If you don't know the person (and sometimes even if you DO!), those words to me are an instant red flag. Eyes wide open. Let them take lead and see what they do and be prepared for ANYthing. I have a friend who is a well-known aerial photographer (you have seen her work in Kitplanes) who is VERY leery of anyone who says 'oh, I'm experienced with formation flying.' Needless to say, formation flying is a major part of air-to-air photography and she has seen the gamut. She had a recent two plane formation shoot that got VERY interesting! Brief the flight (sometimes you can tell just by that) and fly the brief.Also, be cautious when someone tells you they're experienced formation pilots....