Unusual sight: Two private planes in "formation"

[K_W]

In 27 years of looking up when a plane flew over, I have never seen this until today. I saw two regular small private single engine prop planes flying slightly low, wingtip to wingtip less than 1/2 wingspan apart. They went east to west over Carmel Dr. then banked slightly towards Zionsville after crossing Rangeline Rd. These were not warbirds, biplanes, or one larger plane.

I see private planes following close (~100yds) all the time, but I had no idea they where allowed to fly so close, especially over populated areas.

 

[indykid]

Although I never got that close, when I was into photography as a profession, I found that pilots loved pictures of their planes as much as they did their children, so there were many times that I took up one plane, and they took up theirs and I did some great air to air photography. We were flying a fairly tight formation, and did in fact notify the FAA that we would be intentionally flying in close proximity.

Nothing wrong as long as all pilots involved know what they are doing, and the only restriction is a minimum altitude over populated areas, which really isn't high, and doesn't matter if you do something stupid because the ground will break your fall no matter where you do your stupid thing.

 

[gohard43]

Interesting! Maybe some sort of lessons/training? Flying out of or heading to that small airport off 32? I think it's Indy Exec.

 

[indykid]

It is also possible that from the ground they looked like they were inches apart, but since flying is three dimensional, I would bet one was a little higher than the other for added safety as they practiced precision flying.

There have been quite a few people flying in some semblance of formation these last few days. I live pretty close to Indy Exec and have seen more than a few people put together both two and three plane formations. Might be for flyovers of all the memorials set up in tribute to this day 10 years ago.