Steve Tupper

Tupper is a CFI in gliders and single engine airplanes with an instrument airplane rating. He is a Civil Air Patrol (CAP) lieutenant colonel and serves as check pilot examiner and mission check pilot examiner, training and evaluating CAP pilots and other aircrew in search and rescue and other related missions. Tupper was director of the CAP glider program in Michigan Wing for several years before passing the reins, but he continues to fly and instruct in CAP gliders. He has served as cadre for CAP’s Mission Aircrew School at the National Emergency Services Academy. He also serves as a judge advocate and on CAP’s national headquarters operations staff as an aviation advisor and is one of CAP’s primary aviation counsel.

Tupper is an FAA letter of operation-holding Recognized Air Boss/Single Venue. He is the originator of the Tuskegee Airmen Detroit River Days Airshow, a surface-waivered air show over the Detroit River abeam downtown Detroit. This event includes aerobatics, formation demonstrations, and military participation in some of the most complex airshow airspace in North America. He also consults and/or is the air boss for other air shows in the region. He is a Red Star Pilots Association Formation and Safety Team (F.A.S.T) formation lead, and trains and performs with the world’s only formation glider team.

Tupper serves as a director and instructor and has served as chief pilot of the Tuskegee Airmen National Historical Museum in Detroit, as well flying the museum’s WWII warbird aircraft. He assists with the museum’s program that trains underrepresented youth to become career pilots. He specializes in self-launch glider operations and in tailwheel transition training.

Tupper holds AMEL and ASES ratings and a second-in-command type rating in the DC-3/C-47.