Flight of X rework

Features
1

Hello Community!
I am flying some formation flights often and i have noticed that the Flight of X system has some problems.

That are my suggest changes

-everybody in a formation flight that isn’t the leader gets a number from 1-9 and adds this to the flight of addition

-the formation leader shouldn’t add the Flight of X to his callsign

OR

-give the formation leader the option to press a button in the callsign selection menu that changes the colour of the flight progress strip and on the map

-everybody in the formation is able to announce a go-around or a missed approach message that will appear to be sent from the leader

What this would improve:

-There would be less confusion who is the flight leader and everybody in the formation would know at which position he should fly. Because the flight leader has no Flight of addition ATC can easily recognize him.
-when somebody needs a go-around he doesn’t have to change his callsign and announce a go-around. That would reduce the workload for both pilots and ATC because the pilots wouldn’t need to change the callsign and ATC would just let the whole group go around or do a missed approach.

2
  • It’s realistic and normal for the flight leader to have flight of X in their callsign. Would be hard to tell if that was the flight leader or in the flight of X, actually.
  • If you are a flight of X there should be no confusion as to who the leader is, amongst yourselves. If you’re talking about ATC confusion, then that’s controller error.
  • If you need to go around, there’s no need to change your callsign. That’s not something expected from the flight of X.
2 Likes
3

Everytime i was flying in a formation and not flying as a leader i got instructions by ATC without beeing the leader. Also when ATC gives you instructions as soon as you turn into the frequency he can’t even know who the flight leader is. If you are flying close together it is almost impossible for the ATC to see who is first.

If you are not on a stable approach you should always go around even if you are in a formation. I am sure that pilots just don’t go around because they are flying in a formation

4

That’s the controller’s error. When flying in formation it’s difficult to tap on the correct aircraft on the map if you’re flying in formation. We just use the flight strips instead to send commands to remedy that issue. If the controller sends you a command, that’s an error on the controller’s part. Not really a workload issue.

You can always go around if you’re in a flight of X, you’d just be treated as if you are no longer in the flight of X once you break away.

2 Likes
5

It is just difficult to find the leader in the mass of flight progress strips. I once had a formation flight while controlling and i had problems finding the leader. I also added another option that could be more useful for ATC