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From the June 7, 2002 issue of General Aviation News
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Out
of the Blue
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Bonanzas
to Oshkosh keeps this flyer in formation
Russ Hulet
5/30/2002
 Rob
Mortara of Flemington, New Jersey, began flying in 1980, but it
was a chance meeting 15 years later that led to formation flying
in his own Bonanza.
The owner of a construction business, Mr. Mortara was paving at a
construction site and struck up a conversation with the owner,
Bill Epstein.
"I noticed an AOPA sticker on his car and we started talking
airplanes," Mr. Mortara recalls. "He said he was
interested in buying a plane, and I told him I was interested in
the same thing."
The result of that conversation was a partnership in an A-36
Bonanza. For the past six years, Mr. Mortara has been flying with
Bonanzas to Oshkosh, a group of nearly 100 Bonanza enthusiasts
from various parts of the country who rendezvous at a
predetermined location and fly formation into Oshkosh.
To help satisfy his ongoing desire for formation flying, he
decided to enroll this spring in Wayne Collins' formation flying
clinic in Texas.
"I just wanted to get better at formation flying," Mr.
Mortara says. "I want to be able to fly formation at air
shows. This clinic provided an excellent way to improve my
formation flying skills. Pilots were able to qualify for a
Formation Flying, Inc. card. Stu McCurdy, who is the formation
check pilot for FFI, was at the clinic."
Mr. Collins, an acknowledged expert on formation flying, began the
Bonanzas to Oshkosh in the mid-1980s, and the number of planes has
grown each year. This year's clinic was held April 24-27 at
Sherman/Denison (Grayson County) Airport. Thirty-four people
registered for the clinic and came from 14 states, ranging from
Florida to Colorado and Massachusetts to California. There was
even a pilot who flew in from Alaska.
According to Mr. Collins, it is mandatory that each pilot have a
minimum of three hours formation practice in the six months prior
to B2OSH (Bonanzas to Oshkosh).
In addition to a six-hour ground school, the initial flying
consisted of two-ship formations that practiced station keeping,
changing sides (cross under), and formation take offs and
landings. The pilots who continued beyond the two-ship formations
practiced four-ship formations that included fingertip, echelon,
diamond, break/rejoin, lazy eights, overhead break to trail
landing, and formation landing.
Mr. Mortara is currently one-half owner in an A-36 and one-third
owner in another one.
"My girl friend and I use the plane like a car," he
says. "We go to dinner in the plane, fly to places on the
weekends, and meet with our friends who fly. It's a significant
part of our social life."
He flies about 175 to 200 hours a year. His girl friend is Marge
Hengst, and Mr. Mortara says she has been turned on to flying.
"She loves to fly. She's been to Oshkosh with me, and I think
she is about ready to take flying lessons."
An important part of Mr. Mortara's flying life is volunteering to
fly with Air Lifeline. Involved with the organization for about a
year, he recently flew a cancer patient to Buffalo for treatment
and a transplant patient to Boston for a checkup.
Since he has been formation flying in his Bonanzas, Mr. Mortara
has joined a small group of Bonanza to Oshkosh pilots from the
Northeast who fly together. They have named themselves the
Sopranos.
"There are five Sopranos and we enjoy getting together and
flying formation," Mr. Mortara says. "I was talking to a
guy about flying and he asked me where I was from. When I told him
‘New Jersey,' he joked, ‘Are you a Soprano?' We thought that
was kind of funny so we started calling ourselves the
Sopranos."
Mr. Mortara is looking forward to his seventh trip to Oshkosh in
late July. In the meantime, he and the other four Sopranos will be
singing the praises of formation flying.
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