The time to find out that someone's radio doesn't work, or that he has the
wrong air-to-air frequency is on the ramp, not in the run-up area – or
even worse, in the air!
Only the lead needs to get the full ATIS information.
It's more important for the flight to be waiting for him on one
frequency.
After getting the ATIS, lead will call "EZ
flight, radio check… one" The flight
will respond "two …, three, … etc." to verify that they are up and ready.
Based on the ATIS, lead then calls “EZ flight … expect runway #, wind
xxx at xx, altimeter xx.xx,” and any other pertinent ATIS information.
The lead may choose to exclude extraneous ATIS information (airship
operations on a closed runway, etc.) if it isn't relevant to flight safety.
Lead then calls “Eze Flight … monitor ground on xxx point x”, and he
looks for “thumbs up” from #2 to begin his taxi.
A "thumbs up" from #2 indicates that #2 is ready and that #2 has a
verified “thumbs up” from #3, #3 has verified #4, etc.
When taxiing on the ramp, precision is just as important as in the air –
perhaps more so since you are more visible, and a collision is arguably
more likely (no step-down here!).
The military guys like line-in-trail taxi; but you eat a lot of wind
in an EZ, and a tight angle-off taxi looks sharper.
Rushing your run-up is a very bad idea!
Take your time and be sure you are completely ready before committing
with a “thumbs up”. You are
going to have very little time on the roll to catch a
problem, so do it right at run-up!
Ideally, lead would instruct the flight to switch to tower prior to launch.
The ground controller, however, will not like you using his
frequency for your flight communications!
This comment goes double for the tower and ATC, so don’t “borrow”
controller frequencies for use by the flight.
The best procedure is for everyone to switch to tower prior to
“thumbs up”, just like solo flight.
If you don’t hear tower clear the flight to depart, you messed up.
Remember – only the lead's transponder
should be on. Multiple
transponders will generate a mid-air warning on ATC radar that will drive
the controllers crazy.
Definitely expect to hear from them if you forget to turn your
transponder off!
Even
though it makes join-up a bit more difficult, start off by using staggered
departures.