Posted by William Garvey
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One of the most celebrated aerial performers at the ongoing EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wis., is also one of the show’s most durable. Sean Tucker has been wowing the Oshkosh throngs for two decades, and in that time has come to be regarded by many as the finest, most exciting aerobatic pilot in the world.
A Southern California native, he attended the University of Santa Cruz for two years following junior college, majoring in sociology while “trying to figure out what I wanted to do when I grew up.” He found his calling with his first aerobatic lesson in 1973. Since then he has attained international acclaim for his signature performances which have delighted tens of millions of airshow attendees and garnered him just about every trophy, award and honor available for such activity. He and his wife, Colleen, have two grown children.
I got a chance to interview the engaging fellow as he was preparing this year’s big show. His responses (some of which previously appeared in Business & Commercial Aviation) follow.
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What inspired you to become an airshow performer?
Tucker: Very poor training as a private pilot. In the old days students had to do spins and really understand the full range of aircraft control, but when I began training they didn’t. The emphasis was on recognizing an approach to stall. My instructors were so poorly trained themselves that they were fearful of that part of the flight envelope, and put that fear in me. I knew I was a dangerous private pilot and that I’d panic at the controls if I found myself in an unusual attitude. To conquer that fear, I went to Amelia Reid who taught aerobatics in San Jose and told her the truth, that I was scared to death. She took me up and we did spins and rolls and didn’t fall out of the sky or crash. I quickly fell in love with the art form.
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Flying was expensive even back then. How did you support yourself?
Tucker: Crop dusting. I live in America’s salad bowl where the growing season is nine months out of the year. I left college with eight units to go to become an apprentice crop duster. I began with Stearmans, but then started my own helicopter spraying company. I’d log 1000 hours a year. It was a great job because I was done by 11 every morning, so I could practice aerobatics all afternoon. I sprayed my last field in 1992 when I got my first sponsor, but kept the helicopter company until 2001, just in case things didn’t work out.
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How much practicing do you do?
Tucker: The airshow environment is very scary when you’re not prepared. I fly three times every day, usually about 20 or 24 minutes maximum per flight. I’m pulling 9 ½ positive and 7 ½ negative Gs and flying at airshow altitude – 10 feet off the ground – and I’m shot after that. It takes the whole day because I need time to recover between flights. I practice every maneuver thousands of times before I make it a part of my performance. I also work out every day. I never skip.
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Do you have a favorite venue?
Tucker: Oshkosh! EAA is all about mentorship, and I totally believe in it. I’ve had some of the best mentors – Bob Hoover, Charlie Hilliard, and Leo Loudenslager, among them. Without those guys, I don’t think I’d be alive today. So performing at Oshkosh is a kind of payback; none of us get paid for it. This year will be my 19th or 20th consecutive appearance, and I’m just as excited and just as nervous as the first time I performed there. When I land on Wittman Field, I know I’m on hallowed ground. It’s almost spiritually rewarding. The people there are my brothers and sisters of the sky celebrating powered flight. And I get to share that magic. I’m one of the luckiest guys on earth.
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How many shows do you log in a year?
Tucker: About 20, from April through October.
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Do you ever perform in the southern hemisphere, say in Australia or South America?
Tucker: No. My level of performing is hard on the body and hard on the airplane. Every year we completely overhaul the airplane, even though it might have logged just 400 total hours. We remove the wings and uncover the entire airframe. We go through every weld. We overhaul the engine, a Lycoming AIO540, which we’ve modified to produce 11:1 compression. And we overhaul the Hartzell prop as well. We do it all in house, and the process takes a full three months.
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What is your airplane exactly?
Tucker: I’ve called them all Pitts’s and my new one is my fourth iteration. It’s highly modified. Mine is the only airplane with eight ailerons. Its tail configuration is similar to that of a radio control airplane. It has no stability and allows me to perform what I call 3D aerobatics, using all the airplane’s energy and all its forces, including its gyroscopic forces.
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Do you fly it to shows?
Tucker: No. Because it’s unstable, you have to work at it all the time. That’s very taxing, and doing it before and after a show would be too much. I ride the airlines and someone else flies it.
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Are there maneuvers you refuse to do?
Tucker: I perform a lot of unique maneuvers that have taken me a long to perfect. I’m doing stuff only model airplanes can do. I’m now doing front flips, which is something biplanes never did. However, I don’t do any maneuver in a show until I can do it perfectly, and only when I have an out should something go wrong. I do not put myself at undo risk. Unlike NASCAR, we don’t get out of the wreckage, and I don’t want to die in an airplane.
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Well, maybe no undo risk in the air, but you’re a cave diver as well! Will anyone actually sell you any life insurance?
Tucker: [Laughs] Yes, but it excludes air shows, cave diving and heli-skiing, which I also enjoy. Cave diving requires teamwork, strategy, training and trust. I used to partner with my son, Eric. We’ve been more than a mile under the earth -- and that’s horizontally, not vertically. Cave diving becomes an exercise in discipline, of facing fear. You cannot panic a mile from any light source. That’s helped me in flying, too.
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Do you do much non-aerobatic flying?
Tucker: I’ve got 24,000 hours of flying time, and one hour in the clouds. I’m a totally seat of the pants flier. I own nine airplanes, including a Seneca III, but I am reverent in terms of my limitations. I can fly at 250 miles an hour, upside down and ten feet of the ground. That’s my job, and I do that safely. I’m instrument rated, but I couldn’t fly an ILS to minimums. I wouldn’t even consider it. I’m not going to put myself in jeopardy.
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A spectator needn’t be a pilot to appreciate the amazing things you do up there, but what should pilots be looking for?
Tucker: Pilots get it. They really get it. What I want them to see is the elegance of the maneuver, one that is precisely executed and with margins of safety inside that figure. I’d like them to see a person committed to excellence, who’s totally in control. someone who doesn’t abuse the privilege by being reckless in the sky.
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You’ve done more than 1,000 aerobatic performances. How many do you consider to have been perfect?
Tucker: One. Three years ago at Miramar. I’m still looking for my second.
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What’s the best part of airshow flying?
Tucker: I love everything about it. It’s my true
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