Sean D. Tucker New Young Eagles Chairman

[PaulDow]

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!

[somorris]

Good news. Thanks for posting.

[mazdaP5]

I was sure it would be Colonel Chris too.

[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!!

[Glenn Gordon]

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!!

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

[Brian O'Lena]

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.

[Mike M]

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

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.

[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.

[Inspector Fenwick]

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.

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).

[Victor Bravo]

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.