AAR from my perspective:
Numbers were good for inaugural run. Not sure how far the information got spread before the event. If it stays Sunday night (consistency), and word spreads, it will certainly grow. It was a fun event.
The group did a much better than average effort to stay together after the bomb run all the way back to landing. They stayed together. No scattering. No full throttle runs. Very disciplined compared to most runs. all.
MAN and RPM settings. I know many pilots like to run full throttle, or believe in "speed is life", but when it comes to large bomber formations, lower MAN settings mean a tighter formation. Sunday's formation was not bad, but was still spread over 5 or 6 Klicks front to back, plus a pretty big vertical separation.
Recommend lead flight not exceed 40 MAN on climb out, and if spread out, drop to 35 MAN, or even 30 MAN once in level flight (too slow does cause problems with catch up, as pilots will not anticipate throttle adjustments well enough in advance, and overshoot).
MAN also drops with altitude, so you have to adjust for that as well in picking a lead MAN setting. About 80% power is probably a pretty good guide for lead to follow.
By getting a nice formation, the Bombing Guide listed on the site comes more into practical use, and that 85% hit will become a 95 to 100% BDA. After that, if you care to, you can start thinking about hitting two targets, or even three. Several strats or City or HQ. Also, a tight formation is a buzz saw for any enemy planes that venture into it, and easier for escorts to defend.
A good formation also makes it easier to place each bomber into a slot on that Bombing Guide. It should become fairly intuitive. If you have enough, you have, say, a Lead group, a High Group ... to the right of lead and slightly behind, a Low Group, to the left of lead and slightly behind. That's somewhat historical in the positioning. Each Group would be 1, 2, or 3 flights wide, depending on participation... and number the groups back as many rows as you have planes to fill slots.
Large formations can be tough to keep together, and you occasionally lose players to course corrections since they are AFK. For best result, you want a simple course with few course changes, and those course changes should be slight not severe. Using "turret turn" (use of rudder control from a turret position, maybe from external view) is easier to do than with joysticks for some. Use of the L and J keys for slight corrections.
