by Garth Meyer
Apart three feet, back three feet and down three feet from each other, the formation planes will arrive over Pasadena with a certain time in mind: 9:13 a.m. and 12 seconds New Year’s Day.
The Torrance Airport-based Tiger Squadron graces the Rose Parade as the first civilian formation to be granted the honor.
The South Bay pilots fly Chinese-made combat trainer prop planes.
They ran an abbreviated practice Sunday morning, Dec. 3.
“Tigers check,” founder Craig Ekberg called on the radio from the cockpit of the lead plane as eight others aligned at Zamperini Field.
“Two.”
“Three.”
“Four,” pilots answered, a mix of men in their 40s to 60s; an attorney, a real estate broker, a retired engineer, an aerospace worker, a custom-homes builder and investment brokers.
They took off in threes, then lined up in the sky for four passes over the airport, one with smoke trailing. A Tiger Squadron videographer took footage from the tarmac.
The planes landed, and the men wheeled in the 1960s-’80s two-seater machines back into their hangars, then converged at Ekberg’s for a debriefing. He owns a roofing company.
“I can promise the plane on the outside is way tighter than the inside,” said another pilot, referring to a plane higher in a turn as opposed to level, taking it closer to the next plane than intended.
Pilot No. 4, Ben Holm – at the formation’s right outside edge – explained later about positioning.
“A point on the wing lines up with a point on the (next plane’s) canopy, a split in the elevator with a split in the rudder,” he said. “Then I’m in the right spot. I should be able to look at no. 3’s helmet which should be in line with no. 1’s helmet.”
“The lead is clearly the hardest spot,” Ekberg said.
What he does at the front is navigate, clear for traffic, communicate with the tower, and “keep the flight dressed” – moving the wingmen to particular places, such as for a diamond formation, the standard “fingertip” or “close parade.”
“The wingmen – your job is mainly to fly your spot,” Ekberg said.
Communication is done through wing rocks and hand signals.
“If I wag the tail rudder, it’s to spread (the planes) out. If I rock my wings, it’s to bring them back in,” Ekberg said.
With 13 members, nine Tiger Squadron planes will fly New Year’s Day – the amount of pilots who are available.
Places in formation for each pilot may vary from flight to flight. They fly at 150 mph.
“No computers, nothing else making it happen, it’s just like being on the freeway when you’re driving,” Ekberg said.
Watching film
Ryder “Hammer” Adams has the middle spot New Year’s Day, Pilot No. 6.
“As briefed, I thought it was silky smooth out there, actually,” he said in the Dec. 3 debriefing.
“Ryder, I think you can still take the gauge line a little,” another pilot said. “… I’m seeing your tailpipe come into my space.”
More comments were bandied about in Ekberg’s hangar.
“And the most important guy in the room?” one pilot asked Ekberg.
The leader commented on the passes over the airport.
“You were able to do a complete circuit in three minutes,” he said. “… the smoke looked even from my perspective.”
Then they watched film. Video man John Perchulyn showed it on a T.V. screen.
“This is from straight under,” Ekberg said of an angle they watched. “How does that formation look?”
“Lead is perfect,” one pilot said, to laughter.
“Backseater Mark?” Ekberg asked of KTLA Tournament of Roses host Mark Steines, who was on hand gathering footage for the New Year’s Day broadcast, a former 17-year figure at Entertainment Tonight.
“The music, I thought it was fantastic,” Steines said, to more laughter.
Leader’s view
Ekberg expanded later on what he saw up there during practice.
To the layman, from the ground, it looked like perfection.
“Very close,” Ekberg said. “Subtle corrections, very minor.”
“Because the Rose Parade is so special, the first civilian pilots to ever fly it, we would normally not practice, but we did anyway.”
The squadron was founded 25 years ago.
“This happens to be a passion and a hobby,” Ekberg said. “Like golf but to a much higher standard and level… We drive cars, we fly airplanes, we drink wine.”
He started flying in 1978, and bought a warbird two decades later.
“I became addicted to it very fast,” he said.
Ekberg was trained by a founder of the Navy’s Fighter Weapons School – Top Gun – at Miramar.
“I think we’re the best squadron in the country, besides the Blue Angels,” he said.
“When we started, there were two of us,” Ekberg said. “Being a (regular) pilot, getting a hamburger at Catalina, that gets old pretty quick. This does not get old.”
Joining the Squadron
It takes 50-100 hours past the point of getting a pilot’s license to fly like this.
“Another 100 to become good at it,” Ekberg said. “A pilot just has to show up with the desire. We can teach them.”
First comes 12-20 hours with an instructor pilot in the backseat.
The newest Squadron member is Gary Eliminoufi, at two years. Others are at 5-10 years, others 15+.
Holm is the second newest member, at just over three years.
He got his pilot’s license in 2019, bought a Cessna 152 and met the Tiger Squadron guys in 2020.
Holm, 42, of Palos Verdes, is a custom homes building contractor in his normal life.
Up in formation, certain things are paramount.
“As a wingman, you’re not looking where you’re going,” he said. “You’re only looking at the plane next to you. You’ve got this envelope that you need to stay in.”
Sometimes pilots veer from it.
“He’s getting close, but I’m not reacting yet because I trust that he’ll get back into position,” Holm said. “It’s a constant challenge, for sure. It’s a skill that degrades, if you don’t fly at least once a month.”
“The Tiger Squadron is kind of known for a little bit of arrogance. Because we know we’re good. We fly a lot,” Holm said.
The action is physical.
“After an hour flight, your shirt may be completely drenched, my feet (sore) from the rudder pedals,” he said.
The pedals control the “yaw” of the plane’s nose – left or right.
The hand signals are another thing to watch for in the sky.
“No. 4 is looking at No. 3 who is looking at No. 1. No. 4 is looking through No. 3 to see No. 1,” Ekberg said.
“Almost everything in a normal formation flight can be done with zero talking,” Holm said.
Ekberg at the lead can give Pilot No. 2 an upright clenched fist for example, which means to change sides: the plane on Ekberg’s right to switch to his left.
“If you say something, it mutes the music. We have a running joke; you’re interrupting my music,” Holm said.
The Rose Parade will be the biggest event he has flown, as for most of the Squadron pilots.
“A little nervewracking – the possible amount of people watching. I’m just going to be staring at the other two planes, to hold my position,’ Holm said. “I won’t see the crowd. The pressure is there.”
What is this like in normal life?
“I don’t think it compares to anything,” Holm said.
If any trouble arises during a flight, at the right edge, he can turn away to the outside.
“In the center, the only way out is to go down,” Holm said, noting that a veteran pilot is always assigned to the middle.
The planes
Nanchang CJ6A planes were first built in the 1950s as the primary trainer for the Chinese military.
With controls at the front and back seats; they were first used to prepare pilots to fly Migs.
“Very dependable,” Ekberg said. “I wish there was an American version that is as robust as this.”
Before forming the Tiger Squadron, Ekberg was in Monterey at a car rally and got a ride in one of these planes. Someone asked him what it was.
He didn’t know.
Now Ekberg has flown his as far away as the Caribbean.
The Tiger Squadron did a missing man flyover the day before the Dec. 3 practice for a San Pedro veteran’s funeral. They have done gender reveals: if one plane peels off, it’s a boy, if two peel off it’s a girl.
“No colored smoke. Smoke is all one color,” Ekberg said.
The Nanchang CJ6A is filed as experimental so pilots are clear to perform some work on the radial engines.
“It’s basically 1940s technology,” Holm said.
For maintenance, some Tiger Squadron pilots do it themselves, others hire mechanics.
The planes are still made today.
“They built a fantastic machine,” Holm said. “You think, built in China, that sounds terrible.”
Now its moment has arrived over Pasadena.
What are the top concerns to be aware of in a flight such as this?
“If I spend time worrying, then I’m not doing my job,” Ekberg said. “It’s usually a very Zen-like environment up there.” ER
