By STAN KASPRZYK

FlightLog Archive

∟

Aircraft Flown

Richland NATA Formation - May 2026

After hosting an outstanding informal formation clinic at the Richland, WA airport in 2025, Scott Urban and the Richland team decided to host a formal NATA formation clinic in 2026. Joining on the Richland ramp in late May were seven T-6s, four T-28s, two Nanchang CJ-6s and a YAK-18T. Scott and Desiree Urban, with great support from Bill O'Neil and the Richland airport team, provided an outstanding venue, with two large hangers for briefings and meals, ample ramp space and multiple working areas in the nearby airspace.

Arrival day on Thursday had the hottest temperatures of the clinic, with highs in the low 90s, and a storm system that parted just as it approached the airfield after the evening flying was over. Friday through Sunday had pleasant temperatures in the high 70s, with breezy but very flyable conditions. Ben 'Evil' Cook provided formation and safety briefings before the formal NATA formation flying began, and 'Smokey' Johnson passed on lessons learned from his recent Florida NATA clinic.

I had flown a number of formation instruction flights from T-28 backseats both at Bremerton and Richland, and happily joined the T-28 group again, getting five enjoyable flights with Charlie Goldback and Pete Blood in their T-28B N2207Y, working first on getting the rust out, flying two- and three-ship T-28 formations, then four-ships after those. After normal airwork of station keeping, fingertip, route, echelon turns and diamond formation, we spent most of our efforts on pitchouts and rejoins, getting a lot of great exercise, especially in the sometimes demanding afternoon turbulent conditions.

I was also able to score a flight with Ben 'Evil' Cook in his SNJ-4, then a flight with Jeff 'Spank' Hanoff in his Nanchang CJ-6 in a fun dissimilar formation of two Nanchang CJ-6s, Tom 'Chox' Spreen's YAK-18T and Miguel 'Ozzie' Nelson's T-6.

Great food and war stories at the bar capped off an outstanding formation clinic, with all attendees looking forward to Richland 2027!