The Club is fielding two teams for Sywell this year, the 2-4-Cix Chipmunks (the Chipmunk Flight) led by an Airspeed Oxford, and the Warbird Flight comprising an Avro Lancaster (leader) with a two Spitfires, a Hurricane and a Messcherschmidt ME 109. The Chipmunk group and the fight group will each perform a 7 minute display after the first fly-past, after which all aircraft will reassemble for a second fly past.

The two teams are departing from different airfields because the Lancaster's take off distance is greater than the runway length available at Leicester, our traditional departure field. The two teams have to get their timing adjusted so that they arrive at Sywell within 30 seconds of each other, and preferably half that, for both flypasts. This has required the leaders, the Airspeed Oxford and the Avro Lancaster, to have several practice sessions of their own, without their escorts, to get right.  In addition, the two leaders need to fly a 14 minute circuit during which the Fighters and the Chipmunks carry out their displays.

A briefing document describing the procedures is available, together with an FS Commander Flight Plan for FS9. To download the latter, right click the link and select "Save Target As...".

One of the difficulties the 2-4-Cix team have always had is getting everyone together at the same time, due to other commitments. Only one team member wasn't able to make it on this occasion, and the two practice runs went very well in terms of timing, although there were a few other issues highlighted and solutions agreed.

After the timing adjustments made for the final run following the previous week's practice, the Chipmunks decided that it was now too slow, so this has been adjusted.

During the debrief whilst all parked at Sywell (Lancaster too, after an unfortunate excursion first time round) we were treated to a splendid aerobatic display by Jim Cartwright in his Gloster Javelin, before he too landed and joined in the discussions.

Initially planned as a Warbird Flight practice, Don Fraser, leader of the Chipmunk Flight was able to join the session. The Lancaster had previously made a number of timed runs and had a programme now which was repeatable to within less than half a minute, so Don's presence allowed the two Flights to practice this for the first time. It went well, with actual times over the en route waypoints and the final fix (Sywell Runway 21 threshold) being held within 20 seconds of target in the two runs made in the evening.

Some timing adjustments were found to be necessary to accomodate the Chipmunks slower speed on the final run. Peter Dodds agreed to have these ready for the following week#'s practice.

The nature of the display this year enables the two Flights to practice independently, which is a lot easier than trying to get everyone together on the same evening, although that has to be done as well, naturally.

The Warbird Flight and the Chipmunk Flight have both met up and "done their thing" independently, working out their display routines.

There was useful session this morning practicing the initial departures from Leicester & Bruntingthorpe. It had taken several previous practice sessions to find the turning points so that the pair could fly an extended circuit and arrive back over the Sywell threshold after exactly 15 minutes. The important part was being able to repeat these timings  accurately.

The last run of the session was good for time, but was spoiled by some server issue, whereby the Oxford could see the Lancaster, but the Lancaster couldn't see the Oxford less than 15 seconds ahead at Sywell.  Both returned to Bruntingthorpe to land and a new member, Sean Bennington joined in and flew the approach in formation with the Lancaster.