Hamill’s air show
tells story of hard work, perseverance
By Barbara A. Schmitz
|
Where to see
Hamill
He’ll be
performing
in the afternoon air show
today and Sunday.
You can get his
autograph
at 1 p.m. Friday
at Member Village. |
Ed Hamill knows there is
a difference between role models and mentors.
"There are tons of
role models, but role models are a one-way street. Mentors go both ways;
pick your mentors carefully."
Hamill speaks from
experience. He picked one of the best in the industry—Sean D. Tucker—to
help him learn the air show business.
"Eight years ago, I
walked up to Sean and said, ‘I want to be you some day. I want to
learn how to do the things you do, the way you do them and be able to
pass them on.’"
Tucker agreed to help.
"He really taught me more about the business than anyone,"
Hamill says, noting that he still has more to learn. And the business is
more than flying—it’s dealing with sponsors, fans, the industry, and
more.
While he hopes to emulate
Tucker, there is one area he wants to keep a distinction—his
performance.
 |
|
Aerobatic pilot Ed
"Hamster" Hamill flies his Dream Machine over Lake
Butte des Morts. AP Photo/Rocka RHO Publishing Victoria Arocho |
Hamill says his
performance tells a story with a recurring message—set goals, work
hard, never give up, and start living your dreams.
His performance today and
Sunday is a tribute to the last 100 years of aerobatics, and includes
three segments—barnstorming, dating to the 1920s; competition, dating
to the 1950s and ’60s; and sky dancing, dating to present day and
including high-energy gyroscopic, end-over-end maneuvers. All segments
feature appropriate period music.
It’s quite the change
for the young boy who used to sit in his grandfather’s lap and help
steer the Cessna 310 or the 14-year-old who recalls seeing a fighter jet
fly by and vowed not to only fly, but to fly military jets.
He did both, earning his
private pilot certificate while still in high school. He graduated from
San Diego State University in 1989, and then entered active duty in the
Air Force flying F-16s.
Hamill has always known
how to follow through. "When I decide on a goal, I typically
accomplish it," he says.
But he almost had to give
up his dream of becoming an air show pilot. "After three years of
knocking on doors trying to find a sponsor and running up high interest
credit cards, I was ready to put the plane up for sale. I had to stop
the bleeding."
Then in 2003 it happened.
After working out small deals with local companies and documenting the
return on investment, he called the U.S. Air Force Reserve. He gave them
a five-minute speech, and weeks later, the two groups met and Hamill had
a sponsor and some cash flow.
Now he flies 15 shows a
year in the Dream Machine, a Curtiss Pitts biplane, plus he flies six to
nine times a month at the Air Force Reserve base where he is an F-16
instructor.
In 2001, he performed for
the first time at EAA AirVenture.
"Sean always said
that he’d get me into an air show once, but then it would be up to me
to get asked back," he says.
There wasn’t a
record-crowd that first year, Hamill recalls, but he didn’t mind; he
was just happy to be at Oshkosh.
"It was a Monday and
there were 30-knot direct crosswinds on the crowd, and my dad, my wife,
and staff were watching. Otherwise it was pretty empty."
He was talking to the Air
Boss, getting ready to go up, when suddenly Wayne Handley, another
aerobatic pilot, came on. Knowing that Tucker was not there, Handley was
checking up on Hamill, and because of the wind, suggested he move
further away from the crowd. Hamill agreed.
"I knew no one would
remember my aerobatics that day. But if I did fly too close to the
crowd, they’d remember that."
Key to safety is
practicing—a lot. Hamill tries to fly two to four 30-minute flights a
day, and flying is always the priority.
Hamill says that if
Tucker has stressed one thing to him, it is safety. "When you’re
performing you’re holding the dream of thousands of people in your
hand. An accident could mean those dreams would go down with the
plane."
And he has another, more
personal reason for being safe—a wife, Jodi, and two children, ages 2
and 4, all of whom are accompanying him to EAA AirVenture.
"They love everything about
airplanes," he says. "When my wife needs to get them to pick
up their toys, she just bribes them by saying they can go to the
hangar."
