The Sky’s the Limit
Michigan Wing legal officer is accomplished pilot
By Sheila Pursglove
Lt. Col. Steve Tupper once covered the 65 miles from Battle Creek to Big Rapids, Michigan in 11 minutes — on an orientation and demonstration flight in a U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds F-16D Fighting Falcon.
“It was like drinking from a fire hose,” Tupper said. “I thought I was prepared, but I wasn’t. And, at nine Gs, I weighed more than some of the airplanes I’ve flown, complete with full fuel, pilots and coffee.
“I’m pleased to say I stayed conscious throughout and my demo pilot, Air Force Maj. (now Lt. Col.) Tony Mulhare, signed my log-book for an hour of dual instruction.”
Passionate about flying from boyhood, Tupper is a commercial pilot and holds commercial private or instructor privileges in gliders, single- and multi-engine land airplanes, single-engine seaplanes and the Douglas DC-3 (SIC).
He is also lead legal officer for Civil Air Patrol’s Michigan Wing, where he previously served as assistant to the position for four years.
It’s a perfect role for Tupper, whose early interest in aviation was sparked by the Apollo missions of the late 1960s and early 1970s and by a book he read in first grade entitled, “Sabre Jet Ace,” a fictionalized biography of Korean War jet ace Joseph McConnell Jr., written by Charles Coombs.
The 1998 Tom Hanks HBO miniseries, “From the Earth to the Moon,” reawakened Tupper’s interest. On Feb. 7, 2001, he played hooky from work to fly down to Cape Canaveral to see the launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis to the International Space Station. “Two weeks later, I was taking my first flight lesson,” he said.
A lawyer with Dykema, a national law firm in Bloomfield Hills, Tupper joined CAP in 2004, drawn to the opportunities to fly search and rescue, disaster relief and other missions. “That kind of thing has always appealed to me,” he said.
Tupper was initially appointed as legal officer with the grade of captain in 2005. He has been flying and serving in a legal capacity for CAP ever since. He has held positions as Oakland Composite Squadron deputy commander and as a search-and- rescue and disaster-relief pilot.
In addition to the Thunderbirds F-16 experience, he has flown with the 9th Reconnaissance Squadron in the T-38A companion jet trainer and with the 559th Flying Training Squadron in the T-6A Texan II, as well as widely varied other aircraft as part of his coverage of aviation and aerospace in his podcast and blog “Airspeed.”
“I’ve been very fortunate. I’ve talked the Air Force into letting me fly in several military training aircraft, and I’ve tried to experience a broad range of civilian aircraft, from gliders to sea- planes to a 1940s airliner,” Tupper said. “Every one is different and wonderful in its own way. And that’s not just piffle to say that. It’s really true.”
He earned a National Commander’s Commendation in 2009, the Distinguished Graduate for Mission Aircrew School at the National Emergency Services Academy in 2010, and a Wing Commander’s Commendation in 2014.
His recent flying has been primarily in the TG-7A, an Air Force motorglider used at the Air Force Academy until 2003. And he is one of only five people in the world to hold a Formation and Safety Team card in the glider category.
Tupper flies as part of a three-ship formation for the Tuskegee Airmen National Historical Museum’s air show team and gives introductory flights to children as a part of the museum’s education and outreach programs for kids from inner-city Detroit.
“I know what excited me when I was a kid and what made me want to study hard, train hard, set goals and achieve them,” he said. “Taking a kid up in an aircraft lets you show the kid possibilities that the kid might not know are available. If you want a kid to understand what’s waiting for them if they stay in school and stay out of trouble, it’s incumbent on you to show it to them.”
His favorite “students” are around 12 years old and a little scared about the flight.
“More often than not, that kid ends up flying the aircraft for most of the 20-minute ride with only minimal input from me,” said Tupper, who for the past two years has been teaching his 14-year-old son Nicholas a cadet technical sergeant in the Oakland Composite Squadron and a pilot trainee — to fly. “He’s now eligible to solo in gliders and I’ll be able to be the one to sign him off when the time comes. He motivated me to become an instructor so that I could do the honors.”
Originally published in April-June 2016 Civil Air Patrol Volunteer magazine.
