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Formation Flying

Flying formation is not the same as following someone.

You should not follow close to someone else without their permission.

If the leader cannot keep the formation together, then it should be called
"following", not formation flying.

The leader of a formation flight assumes some responsibility for the safety
of the other members of the flight.

The leader assumes that once a wingman joins the formation he remains in
formation unless he/she tells the leader he is no longer in the formation.

Never lose sight of the leader.

Always have either vertical or horizontal clearance from the leader.

Keep one hand on the spoilers while in formation.

If flying wingtip formation (echelon), the wingman should stay far enough forward so
that the leader can have visual contact, if he wants to look at the wingman.

The leader rarely looks at the wingman.  The leader is normally looking ahead and to the sides for other air traffic, hazards, and lift.  The leader is planning ahead.  Planning where the flight will be two minutes, four minutes, 10 minutes from now!
 
 

Radios

Inflight radio transmission should be as concise and as brief as possible.

Unless it is obvious, always identify yourself when making a transmission.

Always phrase each call as if you were saying "Hello xxx" but delete the
"Hello" portion from each transmission. That is, always say the callsign of
the pilot you are calling first, in every transmission.

If you are standing in a group where there are a lot of conversations going on, but someone starts to read info some that you need, you will miss the first part of that info if they don't get your attention first.  That's why you need to just listen up to your call sign.  As soon as you hear it, you begin listening.  If someone calls on the radio, but they say their call sign before yours, you begin listening from that point onward - and if you don't recognize the voice, you will have no idea who it is tha is doing the talking, and you have no way to call them since you don't know who it is that called.  It's just a mess.

The frequencies assigned for use by gliders, is so full of congestion that pilots either turn the radio off, or leave the volume very low so they are not annoyed by it, or they leave it up at normal levels, and just get annoyed by all the noise.  In either case, it is a critical safety issue that has remained unresolved here in Northern California for the past two decades!

If asked "how you are doing", state altitude, and location as concisely as
possible. If the caller wants more info he/she will ask.

If asked about lift conditions, state average rate, and state present altitude.

Callers usually don't care about momentary lift rates - only averages!

Callers usually don't need to know your altitude more precisely than the nearset 500 feet.

Callers don't usually need to know your location closer than a few miles, unless they are nearby.

Position reports for flight following purposes should be in relation to over prominent or well know points, and should be concise, so that people will remember them.