Do Fly-Ins Occur in Real Life?

[Calvin Waterbury]

I was curious about this subject and was wondering if they do happen in the real world? More specifically, if there are fly-ins is there also inter-aircraft communications for general conversation? Does the FAA allow or make provisions for these comms? Are their avionics devoted to personal chats between aircraft? Inquiring minds want to know!

[Pieces]

Fly ins certainly do happen in real life. A few months ago I attempted to go on my first, but it was cancelled by weather. The flight was going to be from 5I4 to 4I7. I took off from my home airport and landed at 5I4 to get some gas just as the first few were heading south to 4I7. Before I could get done, everyone who had taken off was coming back because of low fog and ceilings to the south. I just ended up heading back to MZZ. There would have been 10 - 15 planes headed down if the weather had held up.

As for a communication frequency, I think there is one dedicated to formation flight but I don't know what it is off the top of my head.

[Keith Smith]

They do happen in real life. 122.75 for air to air comms, and unofficially 123.45, which is officially an oceanic frequency if memory serves but is unused within the CONUS, so it's another place to chat.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFaftfkMyUU (3:37 mark, all those planes on the GA ramp were there for the fly-in. All the people in the restaurant where there for the fly-in).

[Tim Krajcar]

I attend (sadly, usually by driving) a monthly flyin by the local EAA chapter. Depending on weather, anywhere from 5 to 40+ planes (many home built) converge. Here's a picture from summer 2011 (there's a few others in that Flickr set too):

http://www.flickr.com/photos/allegrocon ... 6759421831

[Pieces]

Tim, I don't think your link is working as intended. At least it isn't for me.

[Keith Smith]

And then, of course, there's Oshkosh and Sun 'n' Fun.

[Tim Krajcar]

Post edited with correct link

[Calvin Waterbury]

122.75... that answers my question. Thanks for all the links and comments.

[arb65912]

They do happen in real life. 122.75 for air to air comms, and unofficially 123.45, which is officially an oceanic frequency if memory serves but is unused within the CONUS, so it's another place to chat.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFaftfkMyUU (3:37 mark, all those planes on the GA ramp were there for the fly-in. All the people in the restaurant where there for the fly-in).

I want to understand it correctly, I know that 123.45 is the chat frequency but let's say we are at LAX ( next fly-in) and we want to chat before the flight.
Would it be OK to use 122.75 while on the ground for chatting or only 123.45?
Thank you. Cheers, AJ

[Keith Smith]

Either one is fine, 123.45 would be a lot more convenient because it's set up as a full duplex system. That means you can hear others while you're talking (like sitting in a real conference room), unlike a real radio. I would use 123.45 on the ground as a pseuo-conference room (mimicking that experience of being in a flight planning room), then once airborne, I would use 122.75 because it behaves like a regular radio channel, which is what you would be using while airborne during a group flight.

This assumes you're going without flight following, of course.