Children often dream of flying, but Mark Edwards, of Sedalia, put wings to his dreams. This past weekend he performed with the KC Flight Formation Team at Wings Over Whiteman air show at Whiteman Air Force Base.
On Saturday the team fought strong southern winds to put on a show for the WOW crowd below using formations such as the “Double Diamond 8,” the “Delta 8 Bomb-burst” and the “Near Miss Snake Dance.”
Edwards, who has been flying for 30 years, has flown with the Lee’s Summit team for about four years. He noted that even as a child he wanted to fly, but it took a gift of ground school instruction to give those dreams wings.
“I always wanted to fly since I was a little kid,” he said Saturday at WAFB. “I never had the financial ability or anybody I knew that was much of a pilot. I’d go up when I could in small planes …”
Life often has twists and turns while reaching a goal. Edwards graduated from high school during the Vietnam War and went to college to obtain, not a pilot’s license, but a business degree.
“I was trying to struggle through college and decide what I wanted to do,” he noted. “So, I ended up getting into general business and decided to focus more into the accounting area and computer science …”
Years later the gift of ground school, a gift given by his wife Charlotte, prompted him to get his pilot’s license.
“I got my license and would rent a plane, and maybe fly two or three times a year,” he said. “I’d go up and putter around, that was as much as I could afford to do.”
Edwards, a former Sedalia City Councilman from 1994 to 2000, took a 10-to-15-year break from flying as his children grew and went off to college. Then aerial providence happened. Since he works in Lee’s Summit he said he eventually “migrated over” to the Lee’s Summit Airport to take additional flight instruction and decided to buy a small Cessna.
He was then invited by members of the KC Flight Formation Team to fly their experimental planes. At first he declined, but soon changed his mind. He said many of the team members built their own experimental aircraft. Since building a experimental plane can take four to five years, Edwards opted to purchased his aircraft a Harmon Rocket II.
“These experimental planes are built with the same materials, the same craftsmanship, if not better, than a certified (builder),” he said.
Edwards said the team, which is a 501(c)3, attends formation clinics and practices one to two times a week. The team flies in three to six shows a year and are required to practice two to three times before each show. Together, they have a wealth of flying knowledge.
“A lot of guys in the group are ex-fighter pilots and airline pilots,” he said. “There only two or three of us that really honed our skills by flying with them. We go to FFI (Flying Formation Incorporated) clinics throughout the year. We have to get a card which means we are certified, and we get checked out and tested to make sure we have all the skill levels (covered).”
While flying in formation the men are close enough to each other to give hand signals about formation movements.
“There’s a wing-rock, which means move in tight, you flutter the tail which means you spread out,” Edwards said. “We have to (use hand signals) because if our radios go out we have to communicate.”
The team is also well versed on safety procedures.
“There’s do’s and don’t’s,” he noted. “You follow the flight lead. If you are in the left hand like the No. 2 position the whole time you are flying, the thing you look at is the plane to the right. There’s a triangulation, I’ll look and line the spinner up with the wingtip. Then I look at the rudder, and look for position of the elevator, and that’s my position of triangulation to know I’m in the right spot. If I see too much rudder I’m too far back.
“The whole flight, I never look forward,” he added. “I constantly look at that pilot. If he tips up and turns, I drop down and fly with him. It’s all synchronized.”
Although the KC Flight Formation Team performs at air shows they also do flyovers for events such as the Kansas City Royals and for military veteran memorials.
“We’ll be contacted, and we’ll do an overfly of the cemetery, and do the missing man formation for them,” Edwards said. “It’s usually a World War II or Vietnam veteran, I really like doing that.”
He added that since they are a 501(c)3 organization funds raised goes to charity work.
“We did the 50 plane flyover at the (Kansas City) Chiefs Stadium and they collected $50,000 for breast cancer,” he added.
For more information about KC Flight Formation Team visit their website at https://www.kcflight.org/.
