Operational Navigation Flight Training Instruction
Two-Plane Road Reconnaissance
CASE 1 and 2. (Figure 17) If the attack is started
from good combat spread, the lead will be nose
down first and, therefore, be the first across the
target. Since lead is the first off target, there typically
will be a need to delay once the nose is recovered to
the horizon. The delay should be made by a level
hard turn away from the egress heading while at idle.
The turn away from egress should also enable the
lead to observe the wingman coming down the
chute. The job of the lead now is to judge when to
reverse back to the egress heading based on the
wingman's track crossing angles and rate. The job
of the wingman is to recognize how far he is behind
the lead. If it appears he will attain bearing quickly,
idle would be appropriate. If wing is well behind the
lead and will not attain bearing quickly, staying at
MRT and carrying the excess airspeed to bearing will
get the section back in combat spread faster.
Occasionally, both aircraft will recover at the same
time with altitude separation across the target. In
this case, both wing and lead would simply recover
and turn to the egress direction.
Lead
Wingman
CASE 3. (Figure 18) Egress direction perpendicular
Figure 17: LEAD PERFORMS A DELAY MANEUVER
to attack axis with lead on the inside of the formation,
has some unique considerations. There is an
advantage for the geometric flow off target to have
lead positioned on this side of the egress direction or
3
inside. The reason is the lead will typically be the
first across the target and will be moving from the
3
inside of the turn toward the outside. This will incur
2
a natural delay as lead turns to the egress after his
2
1
attack. The wingman on the other hand, will be
1
nearly pointed in the direction of the egress as he
recovers from his attack. Due to the separation that
occurs from the high/low profile in both altitude and
horizontal position, the time it takes for lead to turn to
egress is just about right to come out on bearing with
the wingman coming off target. The lead should
initiate his turn to the egress immediately after the
nose is recovered to the horizon. The wingman
should analyze his relative position to the lead and
determine where to set the power off target to attain
bearing as quickly as possible.
Communicating quickly off target, whether you are
visual or blind, is key to regaining mutual support
Lead
Wingman
and situational awareness. The pilot with a visual,
should immediately try to talk eyes on with a clock
Figure 18: TARGET EGRESS; NO DELAY
(7-99) Original
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