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Teacher, student share stunts, sky

Viki Fentress
The sky is often taken for granted. It can be blue, gray, cloudy or filled with stars. It’s always there, but not something we often think about; however, for some local pilots, it is a canvas waiting for them to write their own unique story with aerobatics.

Dr. Gary Boucher, associate professor of physics, is one of those local pilots. He teaches in the Department of Chemistry and Physics; that’s his “day job.” His passion is flying, but not just piloting the plane. He makes it do tricks that defy the law of gravity.

“It’s a very expensive hobby, but very rewarding,” Boucher said. “It’s some of the most fun you can have.” And, he should know; he took his first flying lesson at the age of 17. It all started with a TV show.

One Saturday two years earlier his TV was tuned to “The Wide World of Sports” with its familiar tagline, “the thrill of victory, the agony of defeat.” It wasn’t something Boucher would normally watch, but on this particular episode an aerobatic pilot was featured. While watching the pilot do his rolls and other maneuvers, Boucher thought, “Wow, I have got to do this!” That’s just what he did, but not without a lot of trial and error. That’s not surprising considering he taught himself about 80 percent of what he knows about aerobatics.

In 1983, he flew his first official air show. It was exciting at first, but that soon changed. “Years ago,” he recalled, “the thrill was getting in a plane and flying. Then, the thrill came from aerobatics. That got humdrum. Then I began flying lower and lower at air shows.” So low in fact that he is now certified by the FAA to fly at ground level. “The sensation is indescribable at ground level.” Fewer than 300 pilots in the country have an FAA Low Altitude Competency Card.

One of the others is also here in the Ark-La-Tex: Wyche T. Coleman III.

Coleman, a former LSUS student, took Physics 420 (a class on microprocessors) from Boucher. His assessment of his former professor? “He tells terrible jokes.” That’s not what Boucher says. Once, he wrote a letter of recommendation for Coleman, who wanted to attend LSU Medical School. The copy of the letter he gave Coleman was scathing, listing flaws that his student did not possess. Fortunately for Coleman, a much more flattering letter was sent to the school and he was accepted. A big laugh was had by … Boucher. He’s still laughing about that one.

Coleman is now an LSUHSC-Shreveport student studying to be a surgeon, but his first love is flying. He says he was tricked into his first flight by his dad at the age of two. “I loved to ride in the plane,” he recounted, “taxiing down the runway, but I never wanted to take off.” One day his dad left the ground and Coleman has been in love with flying ever since.

At 14, he started taking flying lessons and on his 17th birthday he got his pilot’s license. He then followed his father’s lead by learning aerobatics. “Once you do one roll, it never stops,” he said. “You want to do 50,000 more. It’s still on. It’s like a 20 minute roller coaster ride that you don’t have to wait in line for.”

He’s studying to be a surgeon, but he doesn’t want his time in the air to be just a hobby. “I’d like to balance my air show career with a career in medicine,” he asserted. “It’s a passion and obsession … not a hobby.”

Coleman would one day like to get corporate sponsors, like NASCAR has, and take flying to another level … one where he could take part in his passion and get paid to do it.

So, the next time you attend an air show and see the pilots who perform with the greatest of ease, you may feel like you’re watching the Greatest Show On Earth, but for pilots like Boucher and Coleman, the real thrill is in the cockpit.