Sean D. Tucker New Young Eagles Chairman

I was just reading my morning news, and I see that Sean Tucker is the new Honorary Chairman for the Young Eagles program. Excellent choice! While Sully & Jeff did a great job, it looks like the program is best served with an occasional change to keep the high interest level.

About the only challenge I see is that the non-aviation public may need an introduction to Sean, but that turns into an opportunity once they see what he does, and who he is.

It's got to be made clear that Sean's performance flights are not representative of a typical Young Eagles flight!

Good news. Thanks for posting.

I was sure it would be Colonel Chris too.

Just to let everyone know....just days after Sean D. Tucker took the Chairperson's position of Young Eagles, he was on the phone with VP Jeff Skiles with several ideas to promote Young Eagle thru the media, during all of his aerobatic performances and much much more! Sean will definitely work very hard to promote Young Eagles to the public and promote GA to all! Glad to have him on board with YE!!

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Originally Posted by Trevor Janz

Just to let everyone know....just days after Sean D. Tucker took the Chairperson's position of Young Eagles, he was on the phone with VP Jeff Skiles with several ideas to promote Young Eagle thru the media, during all of his aerobatic performances and much much more! Sean will definitely work very hard to promote Young Eagles to the public and promote GA to all! Glad to have him on board with YE!!

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Since top aerobatic aerobatic pilot Sean D. Tucker is the now the Young Eagles Chairperson, it seems only fitting that the voluntary Young Eagle pilots should be allowed to excercise the option (and discretion) of including aerobatic maneuvers on their Young Eagle flights.

-Glenn

Sean is an excellent choice as our Young Eagles Chairman and we are very excited about working with him. He brings his excitement and new venues to our Young Eagles program and has already been involved in planning and developing new and additional ways communicate the Young Eagles program to both aviation and non aviation public. Sean is very aware that his typical type of fling is not representative of a Young Eagles flight and he will not be conducting any aerobatic flights for Young Eagles.

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Originally Posted by Glenn Gordon

Since top aerobatic aerobatic pilot Sean D. Tucker is the now the Young Eagles Chairperson, it seems only fitting that the voluntary Young Eagle pilots should be allowed to exercise the option (and discretion) of including aerobatic maneuvers on their Young Eagle flights.

-Glenn

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I read that and was SHOCKED, shocked I tell you. Like we aren't doing it now! Then I realized you probably meant INTENTIONAL aerobatics. Never mind.

Sean's an interesting guy. I got to meet Colleen (Mrs. Sean D.) for the first time. She seems to much be made out of the same mold.

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Originally Posted by FlyingRon

Sean's an interesting guy. I got to meet Colleen (Mrs. Sean D.) for the first time. She seems to much be made out of the same mold.

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Mold? How sad. I hadn't heard that. Hope they can get rid of it. (I am sorry, the devil made me do it)....Actually, what a great addition to the Young Eagles team. We MUST get kids to LOOK UP (and quit looking down at their phone, I-whatever, and game gizmo).

We all agree that Sean Tucker is a high-energy and enthusiastic person, and will bring a lot of new ideas to Young Eagles. His million volt on-air personality will definitely be a positive. I support his chairmanship 100%. But IMHO there is one thing that EAA might have considered in their choices of Young Eagles honorary chair that they never have considered before.

All of the previous YE chairpersons have been high level aviators with great fame and achievements and notoriety within the aviation world. But at the time of their position as chair, those big major mainstream celebrities were not directly relevant to the target audience of non-aviation 8 to 18 year old kids.

The previous chairpersons were all celebrities who were then relevant to the EAA rank and file members... that's us, the 45-70 year olds who already had spent our lives as airplane addicts. I knew who (the famous test pilot who broke a big barrier in 1947, they won't let me use his name) was when I was 10, but none of my school friends did. His "celebrity" for non-aviation school kids was not strong in the 1970's.

With all sincere respect to Cliff Robertson and Harrison Ford, by the time they were YE chairpersons they were world class movie stars for audiences 30 and older. If Harrison Ford had been YE chairperson (and if YE existed) when Star Wars first came out, and every 10-15 year old kid in the galaxy was buying his Star Wars action figures, then you would have had 10 million YE participants in six months.

My proposed improvement would be for EAA to find a young celebrity who is 100% relevant to today's 8-18 year old kids. Then have EAA teach that celebrity how to fly, all the way up through a private license, in return for that celebrity becoming the Young Eagles chairperson for a couple of years.

The media coverage and public interest that this would create would make the Young Eagles program a household name worldwide. Kids everywhere would be tuning into a daily EAA web blog, and online videos, and probably a reality TV show that would crop up to chronicle the whole thing. The concept of learning to fly would be on every kid's mind for a long time. What do you think this would do to increase the number of younger EAA members?

The only difficulty would be making sure that the young relevant celebrity they choose to approach is a higher quality person and better role model than the majority of today's kid stars, many of whom are covered with tattoos and pierced eyebrows and cigarette packs rolled up in their sleeves. But there are a few decent young kid stars out there that can be found and "checked out" for positive lifestyle choices.

Being from Hollywood and the entertainment business in my previous life, I can guarantee you that (if done properly) this could seriously be built up into a major success, and make the Young Eagles program a product/brand in worldwide demand. This idea is something that EAA's local or in-house publicity department is simply not qualified or equipped to handle, no way, no how.

Anyway, now that I've stuck my neck all the way out on the block, I'm interested to see if this idea gets any traction among the members and/or EAA staffers on the forums.

Harrison Ford, while older, definitely had an impact on kids.

One morning during OSH '04 (?), when my son was about 13 years old, we decided to catch breakfast at the Hilton before heading into the show. (For those unfamiliar, the Hilton adjoins the North 40 aircraft camping area, and offers respite from the heat and a decent breakfast buffet.)

We were seated, got our drinks -- and then noticed that Harrison Ford, his wife Callista Flockhart, and their young son were seated at the next table.

My son almost died on the spot. THERE was Han Solo, right freaking THERE! AND Indiana Jones!

I was proud to be an EAAer that day. No one hassled them for an autograph until the very end, when they were done eating and some guy just couldn't contain himself anymore.

Bottom line: Harrison Ford still had "street cred" with kids.

But I hear you about getting a young, relevant Hollywood personality to be chairman. Sean Tucker is awesome, but almost completely unknown, outside of the airshow world.

I had the same thought, that all three of our recent Young Eagle chairmen where older men who may not be household words for teenagers. I think Tucker is over 60 and certainly Ford and Yeager were much older. I will give Yeager lot's of credit for having actually flown a number of Young Eagle kids himself. I am sure that Ford and Tucker have helped in fund raising and publicity, also and that may be an important part.

But, maybe it would be good to have someone who rings a bell with the younger crowd which is the target audience for Young Eagles. But even though I have thought about it, I can't come up with who that person might be. Tom Cruise is no longer the teen idol that he was and I am not sure if any of the new stars are pilots or in general aviation more than just riding in the back of a charter jet.

The point was twofold...

First find someone who is more relevant to the teens today (try to find one who is a decent role model while you're at it)

Second, it's a pretty smart move to have this person NOT be a pilot, because you are going to publicly MAKE them into a pilot... just like Young Eagles is the first step to making the next generation of pilots overall.

Finding a young relevant star who is already a pilot and not a poor role model is probably difficult if not impossible, and then you'd lose the incredible opportunity to publicize the crap out of their flying lessons and the Young Eagles program.

Angelina Jolie & Brad Pitt. Both pilots, both 'quite' well known, inside & outside aviation, & great with kids.

I had no idea that they were both pilots, wonder if they are EAA members.
But just like Tom Cruise, Brad is over 50 and probably not the first poster on the wall of teenagers.
Getting a famous young person to learn to fly with EAA is an interesting idea, but might have a lot of obstacles, like their contract with music or movie people regarding flying as dangerous and also the time needed to learn.

Obstacles yes, insurmountable no.

If an existing celebrity pilot like Angelina Jolie offered to become Young Eagles chairperson, you would get a good size bump in the press coverage for a week.

If a non-pilot like Taylor Swift or Scotty McCreery agreed to learn how to fly with the help of EAA, over the course of six to twelve months (because of their hectic touring schedule and time commitments, ahem), then you would get a huge bump in press coverage for... wait for it... six to twelve months :)

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Born: William Bradley Pitt
December 18, 1963 in Shawnee, Oklahoma, USA

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Bill, close but he's not 50 yet!! And Angelina is not 40 for another couple of years yet.

Personally, I think it's high time there was a YE chairwoman. And she has the best credentials of anyone out there. Pilot, ambassador, parent, significant lobbying experience, nationally & internationally, so has good contacts in government, great role model & is already involved a number of organisations supporting children. What's not to like about her?

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Originally Posted by Janet Davidson

Personally, I think it's high time there was a YE chairwoman. And she has the best credentials of anyone out there. Pilot, ambassador, parent, significant lobbying experience, nationally & internationally, so has good contacts in government, great role model & is already involved a number of organisations supporting children. What's not to like about her?

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All excellent qualifications for the job...and telegenic to boot. I'm sold Janet. What's her number?....let's call her.

Janet, a woman as chairperson of Young Eagles?? Geez, don't encourage them or next thing is they will be wanting to run for President and fly military planes, of swim from Cuba to Florida, or race in a men's downhill. Or even get equal pay for equal work!

By the way, Janet Gutherie lives here and is a friend of mine, and is a pilot as well as driver, but she doesn't fly anymore I don't think.

And you know what the Indians say about the role of men and women: Before the white man came to America things were pretty good: The women did all the cooking and cleaning, the men did all the hunting and fighting, there were vast herds of buffalo and deer, and there was no small pox and no income tax. Then the white man came along and changed all that and called it "PROGRESS".

An interesting news item today on Yahoo. The headline reads like FAA bans Anjelina Jolie from flying her plane. Sound ominous, but reading it you find that is it only that she didn't get her re registration in time so tecnically it is not airworthy.
It says she has been a pilot since 2004, owns a Cirrus SR-22 and loves to fly.
She is a fine actress give enough of a story to work with. Ignore the silly C grade poor Bond imitations and see the one where she is a Mother who had a baby kidnapped and was then given the wrong child by the police and state of California and she was threateined by cops when she complained, based on a sad and true story, and if you are a parent it gives you nightmares.

Like the young eagles program. The program needs more pilots to donate their time to fly the young eagles. Love the look in the kids eyes after their first flight. Spread the word.