Thu, Oct 27, 2011
"Professional" Piloting of Tucker's Bipe Goes Well Despite
Forced Landing
It's been a tough year for all things 'airshow' so it sure is
nice to report one incident that went rather well. ANN has learned
that Sean D. Tucker's airshow biplane, executed a forced
landing Tuesday when a sudden engine stoppage turned the normally
thrusty bipe (the 'Oracle Challenger III') into an immediate
glider. Flying home at the end of a long and very successful
season, Sean Tucker tells ANN that Ferry Pilot and Team Member
Brian Norris did what he expected, "he flew the aircraft like a
professional, dealt with the situation as it occurred and put
together a great outcome by staying ahead of the airplane."
Norris, on the final leg home after a recent fuel stop, landed
on a stretch of highway near Bakersfield, CA, and encountered no
significant damage in the process (minor scraping of the bottom of
the lower wing-tips) and what should have been a scenic one-hour
trip home will now, instead, be a three-hour trip home behind a
truck. No reasons for the engine stoppage are known at this point
and the matter will be fully investigated when the bird gets home.
Norris was being escorted home by fellow team-mate, Ben Freelove,
who flew cover for Brian as he executed the landing, watching from
the Oracle Extra 300L. And once again, let us repeat... no biplanes
or biplane pilots were unduly harmed in the execution of this
forced landing... which is a great outcome for the airshow biz in
light of the way this past year has gone.
Sean's bipe was about to head into its annual tear-down and
rebuild cycle, so there is no significant impact to his airshow
schedule and Tucker told ANN that the timing of all this is
(somewhat) welcome news after "one of the best years" he's had,
personally, in his decades as one of the world's premier
airshowmen. And despite that lofty title, Tucker made it clear to
us that the reason for the great outcome yesterday had "nothing to
do with me and everything to do with Brian Norris... and because of
Brian's professionalism, the whole thing was a non-event."
Sean promises to fill us in a bit more when he has more
info...
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