pattern to look for ships. Once you
found one you would hover over it
and send pictures to whoever was
running comms for my airplane.
Then not only did we do that,
but we also practiced the following
day’s mission, which was formation
flying. We elected one flight group,
which was Chi-Chi and Olga to
lead the flight formation. I was more
or less second in command and
helped keep everyone in line. We
did awful. Our original formation
was the leader in front with two
people to the left and right, two
people directly behind them, and
one person in the back middle. Our
squad didn’t communicate well.
That day was awesome mainly
because that was the day that we
got our call signs. A call sign is like a
nickname in the military. Mine was
Gizmo, but there were others like
Ohioooo, Olga, Chi-chi, Raven, and
Tina. That day we had a surprising
amount of free time and I had an
intense multi-puck air hockey match
with a kid from another CAG.
The next day was one of my
favorites. This was day that we did
the air rally and more formation
flying. This time when we flew in
formation everything went perfect.
Everyone was in their spots and
flew perfectly. Our new formation
that I came up with was the leader
in the front, I was directly behind
him, one group to my right and left,
and two people behind them.
After this we were briefed on the
air rally. An air rally is basically an air
race and obstacle course. We had
to hover and take pictures, pick up
cargo, do a touch-and-go, and do
a hover obstacle course through
pillars. It was intense because you
could see the other planes and
how well they were doing if they
were in front or behind you.
This is also the day that we got
our “motto”. There was a member
of our squad whose call sign was
Ohio. We would call out his name
but emphasize the O. It would go
something like Ohioooooooo. The
air rally was very intense. I had one
of the best times but they never
announced who officially won.
The air rally was probably my
05
www.RocketSTEM .org 05