Meet Wingwalk Sam, the high flying, death defying wingwalker at the Madras air show
Triton Notary
MADRAS, Ore. (KTVZ)– The 25th annual air show of the Cascades kicked off today at the Madras Municipal Airport. Matthew Draxton was there live during our Sunrise newscasts. He was able to speak with some of the performers, including a wing walker. The person you see crawling up the wing of the plane is Sam Tryggvason, otherwise known as Wing Walker Sam.
Tryggvason told KTVZ News “I wanted to learn how to be a pilot, incidentally, I, it was a second job. Uh, my regular 9 to 5 job wasn’t going to cover the cost of flight training, and so I saw a second job. That was wing walking 11 years ago.”
There are only about 5 wing walkers in North America making the aerobatic performance rare.
Tryggvason continued telling KTVZ News ” We take a quiet moment before the flight and we prepare ourselves mentally for the flight, um, go through the routine in our heads and then um so we’re ready to go and that’s all we’re thinking about by the time we’re out there in the airplane or on the wing.” Climbing from her seat to the wing is no easy feat.
“I have D rings on the full body harness I wear underneath my suit. I clip in on both hips and I give my pilot the thumbs up and he sees that and that’s when all the fun starts.” Sam said. She tells KTVZ News her husband is her pilot. Having both come from engineering and STEM backgrounds, the pair see the undertaking as a problem to solve.
“For any any kid, and I was one of them in high school who said, you know, raised my hand in math class and said, When am I going to use this in real life? This is math in real life, you know, this is we’re using. Um, F equals MA in real life and, uh, and it’s a lot of fun.” Sam continued.
You can see Sam and her husband perform Friday at 7 p.m. and Saturday at 10 p.m. The air show is open Friday from 10 p.m. to 11 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. It will feature the Patriot Jet team, aerobatic performances, a car show, and much more.