Absent from the daily Sun’n’Fun display this year was the Oracle Challenger (a highly modified Pitts) display from veteran performer Sean D Tucker. On the first day of the show Tucker had to abandon the plane after suffering mechanical failure in the elevator system during a practice session. At just 200 feet after take off he felt a movement through the stick then lost all elevator control. He was able to continue to climb to 8,000 feet using elevator trim and the attempted to set up practice approaches but couldn’t control finely enough to land. In the event he baled out and lost the aircraft. Talking to journalists just twenty four hours after the bail out he said that he will be back on the U.S airshow circuit in a back up aircraft and then hopes to rebuild.
Absent from the daily Sun’n’Fun display this year was the Oracle Challenger (a highly modified Pitts) display from veteran performer Sean D Tucker. On the first day of the show Tucker had to abandon the plane after suffering mechanical failure in the elevator system during a practice session. At just 200 feet after take off he felt a movement through the stick then lost all elevator control. He was able to continue to climb to 8,000 feet using elevator trim and the attempted to set up practice approaches but couldn’t control finely enough to land. In the event he baled out and lost the aircraft. Talking to journalists just twenty four hours after the bail out he said that he will be back on the U.S airshow circuit in a back up aircraft and then hopes to rebuild.
VIDEO: Sean D Tucker talks
