TRARON FORMATION CLINIC, May 21-23, 2004

Written by Paul Arenson
Col Jim Booth, with the help of many other members, put on another successful formation clinic at Castle airport in Atwater, CA on May 21-23.

Shortly after WWII many military aircraft were declared surplus and began to find their way into civilian hands. Many of these "hands" were ex-military pilots. Others were people who always wanted to be pilots but never were able to get admitted into the flying programs. At the same time air shows began to become popular again and one of the favorite demonstrations was formations of these former military aircraft. Most of the pilots had formal military formation training.

As time moved on these old aircraft found their way into the hands of pilots who had never had formation training and accidents began to happen. Many of them fatal and some of the fatalities included air show spectators. The FAA began to enter the scene and threatened to shut down and ground all warbird flying. This caused the warbird community to unite in a defensive move. The result has been a formal training program that all warbird groups use thereby standardizing the training. The result is that any certified pilot can fly in any air show formation group knowing that the other pilots have had the same exacting training. I've done it and it works.

Each year the Commemorative Air Force, to which I belong, holds a training clinic at the old Castle Air Force base located in Atwater down in the central valley. This year it was held on May 21, 22 and 23. We hosted 43 aircraft. Five P-51s, one L-39, three BT-13s, ten T-28s, fifteen T-6s, four Yak 52s and four Nanchang CJ-6s. The L-39 is a two place Czech jet trainer. The Yak 52s are Russian trainers that are much like our T-6s and the Nanchang CJ-6s are the Chinese version of the Yak 52. It was a great thrill for me for I had flown the BT-13, T-6 and also the P-51 during the war.

The pictures included in this article show some of the aircraft on the ramp. I had the opportunity to fly in the back seat of a Nanchang CJ-6 owned and flown by Dr. Steve Holifield who has a dental practice in Sonoma. The aircraft in flight are other CJ-6s. Great fun and loads of nostalgia.

Marshallers on hand were ramp boss Chris Jensen, Brian Smith, Kim Chitwood and Ed Cleveland. Trainees were Bob Burnett and Tom Carter, along with Mark, Eric, Max and Kevin.

BT-13 formation	BT-13 formation	T-6 formation
T-6 formation	View from the tower	Row of CJs and Yaks
Laurie posing prior to Mustang ride	L-39	Max Cleveland marshalling the L-39
Bob Burnett marshalling a Mustang	Steve marshalling T-6 as Ed Cleveland observes	Tom Carter (with banana battons) marshalling Julie Clark's T-28 "Top Banana"
Schuster "The Great Sphincter"	The Great Sphincter receives recognition	Guest Speaker DR./MAJ Frank Gaunt, USAAF and a P-40 and P-38 ACE
Rich Ferdon getting lead patch	Bucket of "ceremonial liquid"	Dan and Joey Roads on the GGW tug