Back to trying to learn "action photography". I think I've got it now - after a couple of days of progressive learning. Today all I added to the last day's lesson was to switch to Continuous High frame rate and hold down the release. This is the 4th (and last) squadron to take off today. They flew between me & the rising sun so we got a bit off warm color in the image.
Shutter priority @ 1/250 sec. Active (panning) VR (vibration reduction) on. Shutter release on Continuous High (CH) for 5-6 frames per second. I guess that I could switch the ISO to auto to gain a bit of flexibility - next time.
Not hard at all - just takes practice & experience just like anything else.
The advantage of using CH shutter release was that I could pick through several technically OK images and find the one (there was only one) where there was separation between all of the geese.