Deviation Approved Ep. 004 - USAF Col. “Cinco” Hamilton
Deviation Approved Episode 004: USAF Col Tucker "Cinco" Hamilton
Colonel Tucker "Cinco" Hamilton, Experimental Fighter Test Pilot & Director of AI Accelerator at MIT
Overview
On February 20, 2008, Colonel Cinco Hamilton had a life-changing experience. While dog fighting with another pilot over the Gulf of Mexico, Cinco realized that something was off. But by that point it was too late. The planes were 3,000 feet away from each other, and there was nothing he could do to avoid a midair collision. He ejected himself from the plane and fell into the ocean, mistakenly detaching his emergency seat kit along the way. After floating in the water for over two hours with nothing but a life preserver, Cinco was miraculously rescued by a small fishing boat. Unfortunately, the same could not be said for his wingman, who died on impact.
Col. Hamilton explains that it took many years to recover from the trauma of this collision. However, he has also found uncountable ways to bring honor to this tragedy. Cinco has dedicated a significant portion of his career as a pilot to developing and testing technologies that will prevent accidents like his own from happening again in the future. He was the first pilot to ever fly an automatic air collision avoidance system, and he is currently working to implement similar automated features on F-35s. Tucker is not just any test pilot; he is a test pilot with lived experience that actively informs the technological advancements his team works to develop.
Tune in to this week’s episode of Deviation Approved to learn more about Col. Cinco Hamilton’s fascinating piloting journey. From getting struck in the face by lighting while escorting Air Force 1 to flying an MC-12 to working on an Artificial Intelligence Accelerator at MIT, Cinco’s story is one you won’t want to miss.
Quotes
“How do you live with these experiences? And we all have them. I mean not everyone listening has had a midair collision. But we all have failures and experiences in our lives that were mistakes and then you wonder….how am I going to recover from this? What does the future look like, what does the new normal look like after going through something so horrific or going through such a failure? And that has been a powerful part of my story because I believe that there is light on the other side of those failures. I believe there is a purpose and that it oftentimes takes other people helping us to see that, being alongside us as we go through those failure journeys, lifting us up and allowing us to recognise that there is something more.” (7:01-7:53)
“We are trained as fighter pilots to be able to assess our flight path very quickly against other aircraft….Our job is to be able to intercept enemy aircraft. And so you learn very quickly what looks right with regard to flight path movement in your canopy.” (9:36-9:57)
“It was eye-opening, too, really trying to appreciate and understand the culture in which the insurgents (our “enemy”) how they were raised and how they were influenced. And it really made me kind of reflect on the fact that it’s not so easy labelling someone as our enemy….We are so influenced by our surroundings, our culture, our society. And I think with that perspective, it gives combat a different feel, it’s kind of a more severe feel.” (32:46-33:35)
“I show up [to test pilot school] and they’re like, ‘This year, we have as one of our projects the first ever air-to-air collision avoidance system for fighter aircraft.’ And I was like I cannot believe that this is an opportunity for me to be a part of. After my midair collision, I clearly wanted to try to do whatever I could to honor my wingman’s memory, to bring about safety in the dog fighting realm, in the aviation realm, to make sure that people could use technology to avoid collisions. Because our mind definitely has limits perceiving motion in three dimensional space. A computer doesn’t have as many limits.” (39:56-40:45).
“That’s the lesson, right? We don’t know where our path is going to take us. We need to be willing to get up, admit our mistakes, keep moving, be resilient, and appreciate that our journey, our pathway may take us somewhere where it makes sense, where we can try to bring honor to tragedy and try to make sense of the failures that we experience.” (49:17-49:41)
Links
https://www.instagram.com/cincohamilton/
