Narrative:

There was a miss communication with the operating control tower in june. My friend and I were operating two experimental planes as a flight of 2. I contacted ground control; asked for and received clearance to taxi to the runway as a flight. I identified myself as 'experimental X; flight of 2'. When ready for departure; my radio call was: 'experimental X flight of 2 ready for departure; request early crosswind turn.' I was told by the tower 'experimental X cleared for takeoff'. While rolling into position; I then asked again; 'is an early crosswind turn approved?' the tower answered 'affirmative'. I then added full power. This is an open cockpit aircraft; during the takeoff roll under full power it is very noisy and difficult to hear the radio very well. I heard lots of radio talk; but could not make out much of it. After I was airborne I heard the words 'hold short' but since I was flying I assumed it was not meant for me. I also heard the words 'experimental' and 'dash 2'; but since I had never identified myself as either of those; I realized there was clearly confusion going on here. As I was taxiing out; my friend in the other similar biplane followed me immediately onto the runway. He waited until I was airborne (maybe 10 seconds) before he began his takeoff roll. If we are a flight; the idea is to remain close together after all. One aircraft makes the radio calls for all in the flight; and the flight members are responsible for clearance from each other. When I was finally on downwind; I throttled back to reduce the noise level and asked the tower if he was calling me. He answered 'yes; I have been calling you since you were on the ground'. I told him it was noisy and difficult to hear; he asked that I telephone the tower at my earliest convenience. The area around this airport is a congested city and a hill; not a good place to reduce power until some altitude is gained. When we landed about 45 minutes later I did call the tower. He told me that he could not make the second airplane respond to his calls; that all airplanes must be in radio contact with his class D tower; and that he wanted the other airplane to hold on the runway for his clearance prior to his takeoff. He said there would never be any 'flights' allowed to operate into or out of the airport again. I explained that if he did not want us to operate as a flight; we would gladly oblige if he told us that on our initial call up. He said there was no further action planned on his part; he just wanted us to understand his position. I thanked him for that. As far as I am aware; there was no other traffic in the area at that time. My passenger is a CFI; and the other pilot has many thousands of hours as well. None of us has ever run across this type of confusion about operating as a flight. Perhaps this could be clarified for pilots as well as controllers.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Confusion with regard to flight operating procedures demonstrated by ATC Tower and two bi-plane pilots departing as a flight.

Narrative: There was a miss communication with the operating control tower in June. My friend and I were operating two experimental planes as a flight of 2. I contacted ground control; asked for and received clearance to taxi to the runway as a flight. I identified myself as 'Experimental X; flight of 2'. When ready for departure; my radio call was: 'Experimental X flight of 2 ready for departure; request early crosswind turn.' I was told by the tower 'Experimental X cleared for takeoff'. While rolling into position; I then asked again; 'Is an early crosswind turn approved?' The tower answered 'affirmative'. I then added full power. This is an open cockpit aircraft; during the takeoff roll under full power it is very noisy and difficult to hear the radio very well. I heard lots of radio talk; but could not make out much of it. After I was airborne I heard the words 'hold short' but since I was flying I assumed it was not meant for me. I also heard the words 'Experimental' and 'Dash 2'; but since I had never identified myself as either of those; I realized there was clearly confusion going on here. As I was taxiing out; my friend in the other similar biplane followed me immediately onto the runway. He waited until I was airborne (maybe 10 seconds) before he began his takeoff roll. If we are a flight; the idea is to remain close together after all. One aircraft makes the radio calls for all in the flight; and the flight members are responsible for clearance from each other. When I was finally on downwind; I throttled back to reduce the noise level and asked the tower if he was calling me. He answered 'Yes; I have been calling you since you were on the ground'. I told him it was noisy and difficult to hear; he asked that I telephone the tower at my earliest convenience. The area around this airport is a congested city and a hill; not a good place to reduce power until some altitude is gained. When we landed about 45 minutes later I did call the tower. He told me that he could not make the second airplane respond to his calls; that ALL airplanes must be in radio contact with his Class D tower; and that he wanted the other airplane to hold on the runway for HIS clearance prior to his takeoff. He said there would never be any 'flights' allowed to operate into or out of the airport again. I explained that if he did not want us to operate as a flight; we would gladly oblige if he told us that on our initial call up. He said there was no further action planned on his part; he just wanted us to understand his position. I thanked him for that. As far as I am aware; there was no other traffic in the area at that time. My passenger is a CFI; and the other pilot has many thousands of hours as well. None of us has ever run across this type of confusion about operating as a flight. Perhaps this could be clarified for pilots as well as controllers.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.