Schaumburg Live Work & Play - March/April 2009 - (Page 23) this,’” Rippinger said. “They told me, “We’re not very friendly to outsiders. We have to know who you are.’” What that actually meant is that the team needed to see whether he had the mettle to perform acrobatic formation flying. Thus began a long period of training where Rippinger learned how to fly the T34 by touch and feel as well as learn acrobatic loops and rolls on a solo basis, followed by learning how to perform the stunts with two other airplanes. The training period also required Rippinger to unlearn three basic tenets of flying. Pilots are always taught to stay as far away from other aircraft as possible, to always look at the plane’s instruments because they tell the story of how the craft is flying, and to act autonomously. The first is disconcerting, he noted, because in formation flying, the planes are very close to one another, often only 10 to 15 feet apart. Formation pilots cannot look at the instruments because their heads are usually turned march/april 2009 Page 23
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