All He Had To Do Is Bail Out Of A Plane...

by ANN Correspondent Pete Tobin

After all the amazing accomplishments and awards won by air show legend Sean D. Tucker, he has now been accepted into an even more exclusive aeronautical group... the Caterpillar Club. 

For those who have never heard of the Caterpillar Club, it is a distinction conveyed upon any pilot whose life has been saved by a caterpillar... more specifically, a silk worm. 

In other words, a pilot who for one reason or another, elected to forgo the safety of the aircraft in which they were presently flying and chose to "hit the silk;" or, as it is more commonly known, "bailed out."

The identity of the first inductee is in dispute. Most researchers tend to agree that William O'Conner, who jumped from an aircraft over Dayton, OH on August 24, 1920, is the first person to have his life saved by a parachute. Lieutenant Harold R. Harris jumped from his Loening W-2A monoplane fighter roughly two years later and seems to receive most of the official recognition.

Regardless, both of these men had their lives saved by a parachute manufactured by Leslie Irvin. In 1922, Irvin pledged to pin a gold caterpillar on any person whose life was saved by one of his parachutes.  Thus, the origins the Caterpillar Club. 

In more recent events, on April 5, 2006, while practicing for the Sun N' Fun air show over Louisiana, Sean Tucker was forced to leap from his beloved Oracle Challenger aerobatic biplane. After what is believed to have been a rod end bearing connection failure, Tucker heroically fought with the controls of his aircraft for roughly 25 minutes to regain pitch authority before executing such a harsh decision. When the thought: "I could die from this" went through Tucker's mind, he decided it was time to exit the aircraft.

On July 25, 2006, at the Oshkosh Press Tent, Tucker accepted his Golden Caterpillar. Tucker, a consummate professional who always has the safety of himself and others in the forefront of his mind, used the honor of being presented with this award as an opportunity to discuss aviation safety.

From the podium, Tucker, a former sport parachutist with over 500 + jumps to his credit, explained why all aerobatic pilots need to wear parachutes as well as practice with them and obtain free-fall skills long before those skills might be required in a real world situation.

Since Tucker's incident over Florida, several professional aerobatic pilots have begun to take their parachutes much more seriously. Perhaps, this is the silver lining in what could have been and fortunately was not, a very gray cloud. 

FMI: www.oracle.com/cluboracle/teamoracle/index.html