Great turnout at the training evening on Thursday.
One thing that became apparent to me was I will never be as good a teacher as Xtra
It was very interesting listening in though when Xtra took charge of the newest members and even though I knew it, it was good to hear again.
The multi ship ops for my group was generally ok though work is still needed for perfection.
The SOP needs to be read and understood in relation to lights when on the ground and adhered to.
Simple radio is working well and most people seem to be getting the hang of using it.
The use of callsigns is proving to be difficult for some of us and I think we need to revisit the division of callsigns.
http://www.229thavbn.com/callsigns.html
I bag Preacher as B Co. Primary callsign

2nd that skipper, excellent training session, and lots of fun.

I still need lots of practice flying formation lead; I can't speak for those trying to follow me, but some of the key things I need to focus on (and therefore I assume it will be similar for others):

- On take off, don't exceed the 5 hover torque setting. It will require more skill to keep the correct aircraft attitude through acceleration, but adding power to make life easier for yourself will leave the flight behind.
- The VVI needs to be the instrument of focus in turns.
- Watch out for heading drift due to winds (or inadvertent rail rotor input).
- Focus your practice on descending at 500 f/s while decelerating from 60kts to 40kts; that is the hardest bit to keep smooth and gradual.
- Practice, practice, and more practice building up a sight picture of a standard descent to a landing point.
- Never forget that a tiny change in your flight profile will likely end up being a big change at the back of the formation.

I am really looking forward to having a proper go at Cib's mission. Cib: when Xtra and I were in the AFAC (or FAC(A)...) aircraft, we were unable to arm it - is that the way it is set up in the editor?

(B/229) Cib wrote:I bag Preacher as B Co. Primary callsign

....does that mean I am now Choirboy??

RE rearming it has to be on airport iirc

Another point in formation flying. Number 2 is important for setting the interval and tightness of the flight

(B/229) Cib wrote:RE rearming it has to be on airport iirc

...we tried that, but still didn't work.