Once you have some formation time under your belt and have built up your
confidence, you are ready for a two-ship (or element) departure.
Leave three- and four-ship departures to the pros!
Generally, two-ship departures are quite easy to accomplish since the
lateral clearance offered by most GA runways more than adequate.
The key to safe
departures is for the wingman to maintain the correct “acute, angle-off”
geometry with respect to the lead aircraft throughout the roll.
Obviously, he also has to stay on his side of the runway centerline.
A nearly universal mistake is for the wingman to fall behind the lead
(become “sucked”) during take-off.
If the lead has some type of tire, brake or wheel failure, a
“sucked” wingman stands an excellent chance of participating in a ground
collision! A second major source of
take-off error is improper power management by the lead.
The lead must leave the wingman some power margin so
that he can maintain the correct angle-off position.
Departing at less than full power is something that the average pilot
finds highly unnatural. Thus, all
else being equal, it is advantageous to have the lower performance plane
take the lead on departure so that he can use full power, with the wingman
pulling off power, as required, to maintain position.
The possibility of an abort on departure should be pre-briefed, and both
pilots should be prepared to abort at any time.
Either pilot can call an abort.
However, unless a “flight abort” (as opposed to “abort, abort”) is
called, the safest course of action may be for the “non-abort” plane to
continue the take-off. This is a
pilot decision that each flight member must be prepared to make.
If a multiple-element (i.e., more than two-plane) departure
is planned, each element should delay its roll until the preceding element
breaks ground. Reducing this delay
by rolling early makes join-up easier, but it isn’t worth cutting into the
safety margin of the flight.
Note that with a staggered departure, each plane can start to roll when the
plane on his side of the runway is off the ground.
Thus a multi-element flight can be launched nearly as
quickly by using a staggered departure procedure as it can by departing as a
series of two-ship elements.