HTA-0622: Sean Tucker — Aerobatic Pilot

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Summary

Henry interviews legendary aerobatic pilot Sean Tucker about his pre-flight rituals, flying philosophy, and career.

Full Transcript

00:02
An hour before I fly, I find some quiet time and I also put on some music and I walk through my whole sequence.

00:08
I do it with my eyes, clothes.

00:10
Sean Tucker is a performance artist who looks like a movie star, talks like a pilot, and flies like an angel.

00:16
I go through my whole routine that way. I come up, half roll, and I think about where the ground is, 45 downline, and I snap.

00:25
Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam!

00:34
He calls it skydancing, a performance art that combines the sport of aerobatics with the artistry of dance and the fearlessness of a bird.

00:43
You get this rush. The adrenaline squeezes your heart, knowing you're diving down in, and it's not through the maneuvers, and the maneuvers are great.

00:51
It's the performance that is great. It's the choreographed routine that provokes emotion.

00:56
Is it an art putting together these maneuvers?

00:59
Is it? Remember, you're choreographing a motion, your own personal emotion.

01:03
You're choreographing a routine to capture their imagination.

01:07
Absolutely, it's art.

01:08
Hi, Tommy.

01:10
Sean isn't your ordinary artist.

01:12
His studio is a hangar at the Salinas Airport.

01:15
Here he has all the essentials.

01:17
His canvas, the sky. His instrument, the airplane.

01:21
So introduce me to your instrument here.

01:22
This is my Skydancing machine.

01:25
We call her the 1-800-COLLECT-CHALLENGER and that's obvious because of my sponsor.

01:29
She's made out of fabric and if you go ahead and touch it...

01:33
Oh yeah, you can see it.

01:35
I can feel the sky better with the fabric.

01:38
Is there ever a moment of fear?

01:40
Every time I get in the airplane.

01:41
Really?

01:42
Before I get in this airplane, I walk up to it afraid, knowing that this is...

01:48
I could lose my life doing this.

01:49
So it must have hit the...

01:51
It must have when it...

01:52
I did the hard landing.

01:53
It must have just went like that.

01:54
just shattered. Mishaps do happen. This newly shattered wheel cover is an expensive reminder

02:00
of Shawn's occasional lapses. And this was my fault. This is pilot error landing downwind

02:07
not putting my head on straight. Yeah so I must have I must have just

02:13
Tell me you don't make many errors. This is the first time a long time. Yeah. Nope not good. You

02:25
You could consider it an intrepid exploration of the artistic process, or you could just call it stupid.

02:32
We're going to give you a handy-dandy parachute.

02:35
If we have to leave the airplane, if we have to what?

02:39
Well, remember, this is motorsports.

02:43
There's an inherent risk involved.

02:44
Yes, much of the pre-flight briefing had to do with leaving the plane,

02:49
though Sean has only had to use his parachute twice.

02:52
You're gonna have two sets of seat belts that you're gonna let go you jump away from the airplane and as

02:57
Immediately is when you get into the sky and you've jumped away from that airplane. Don't look at the ground anymore

03:03
Look at your ripcord. That's what's gonna save your life. That's what's gonna kill you

03:13
The flying was less frightening than the briefing after a deceptively smooth takeoff

03:17
We climbed up to the top of Shawn's stage at an altitude of 3,000 feet.

03:22
So this is easy.

03:25
What happens next?

03:28
What's this, Henry?

03:30
Whoa.

03:32
For the next half hour, Shawn Tucker demonstrated his art,

03:36
wrenching his plane and my stomach across the skies in high-speed high-G maneuvers.

03:45
This will make your head spin real fast.

03:47
Whoa.

03:49
Okay, relax now.

03:50
Remember what I told you?

03:51
Yeah.

03:51
I'll show you just a minor tumble, okay?

03:53
Okay.

03:54
We're gonna pitch it up.

03:56
These are kind of fun.

03:57
There is at least one major difference between the art of Sean Tucker as seen from the ground

04:02
and viewed from the cockpit.

04:04
It doesn't want to go up anymore.

04:06
Now it has to go backwards.

04:07
For those standing on Earth, it is his plane that performs.

04:17
I think I left my stomach back there.

04:19
Okay.

04:20
But when seen from the sky, it's the earth that spins, flips, and tumbles in a dizzying display.

04:27
Does it still thrill you?

04:29
Oh, absolutely.

04:30
Really?

04:31
The thrill's different now.

04:33
It's a little more mature.

04:35
Yeah.

04:35
The thrill of the perfect flight, searching for that.

04:38
But it really thrills me to fly with people.

04:40
who don't get to experience this a lot.

04:42
Most people wouldn't want the experience a lot or at all.

04:47
But it is a rare art form in which an observer can occupy the very vessel of an artist

04:52
in the process of creation, sort of like riding on Rudolf Nureyev's shoulders.

04:57
You're flying very gracefully here.

05:00
When you're working for a crowd, is it this smooth?

05:03
Oh, no. Oh, no. It's positive.

05:07
I'm going to give you a demo of that after we get done with the graceful.

05:10
I want you to enjoy this experience.

05:12
Okay.

05:13
I don't want to break you.

05:14
Right.

05:15
It's fine with your head.

05:16
But for his final maneuver, Sean took off the gloves.

05:20
I'll show you what it's like close to the ground.

05:22
Stand by for inverted flight at 10 feet off the ground.

05:26
This is a real deal.

05:28
This is something you don't mess around with.

05:29
You don't do it at home.

05:31
Wow.

05:35
Hello.

05:35
I'm going to pick these crops.

05:38
At that height, I'm scared.

05:40
Oh, I know. That gives you a little taste of what I do.

05:43
Whoa.

05:44
But of all Sean's amazing maneuvers, it wasn't the high G loops, the inverted spins, the barrel rolls, or the tail slides that I'll remember best.

05:53
We've got enough? I think we've got enough.

05:56
It was his miraculous final maneuver.

05:58
For that sweet, safe, gentle landing on solid ground, I will admire Sean Tucker forever.

06:05
Now I got you on the ground safely.

06:08
That makes you an artist.

06:09
That's right.

06:10
05 Juliet, runway 261.

06:11
Now I can hear it.

06:12
That's the right traffic, sir.