Cloud Dancer (1980)

I must have seen this film about 100 times. My dad, Terry Tubb, and my grandfather, Walt Tubb were in this film. My dad and grandfather were aerobatics pilots back in the 70's before I was born. My grandfather played one of the judges and also did some of the aerobatics routines in his 'mythical pitts' and my father does a lot of the flying in his pitts special. The thing that most people don't know is that when they filmed Brad's older friend 'walt"'s plane crash scene where he dies, my grandfather Walt Tubb, flew that sequence in his airplane to make it look like he was spinning out of control and falling towards the earth. My grandfather said he got a weird feeling after filming this scene. He died shortly after the film wrapped flying in an airshow where he crashed the very plane he did a 'pretend' crash sequence for. He died before both I was born. I never knew him, and as a young child when I watched this movie, I thought I was watching my grandfather die. It wasn't until I was older that I understood what it really meant.

Not only,no 1 would ever see this film well 4get it,but also well keep watching it over & over maybe till the end of his life & life of his kids & grand kids too...etc. It's truly a highly recommended film 4 all kind of aircraft pilots. Actors r very excellent.The plot's a little thin in this film. It deals with competition aerobatics and the main character's unwillingness to be in a long term relationship for fear of passing on a defective gene to future children. The side plot is teaching a rising aerobatic pilot the tricks of aerobatics while teaching him to live by clean living and giving up trafficking in drugs. Even with the thin plot the aerobatics and filming were good and this was a very entertaining and well done film.

it is rare, that a film that shows the life of a extreme sport competitor, also has a side story and some side action. In cloud dancer you will see how the aerobatic circus is run and you will also see the best maneuvers in 1980, before the monoplane revolution, when performing an uncoordinated maneuver with a 180HP biplane was a real RISK. Many of todays top pilots started by dreaming with Carradine and his Pitts. Most tech aspects of the film are accurate and the filming is fairly good for a series B production, much better that many top dollar Hollywood products. An entertaining film that is a MUST HAVE for every aviation enthusiast. ED

I remember seeing parts of this movie back in the 80's on Showtime or HBO or The Movie Channel or something like that, and being somewhat taken aback that they were showing aerobatics in prop-driven airplanes in a movie that wasn't a period piece!I had a very difficult time tracking this down to rent, and had to pay a $150.00 deposit when I finally did.The first 10 minutes alone were worth the price of the rental: excellent shots from inside and outside of the cockpit, fairly well edited. Anyone who is remotely interested in aerobatic flying will love this film.As for the rest, the acting was poor and the plot was worse. But the flying made it all worthwhile!PS They did an excellent job of making it look like David Carradine was actually flying the airplane. I assume that they used a two-place Pitts for the inside-cockpit shots, and Mr. Carradine really made it look like he was flying, rather than just being along for the ride! Fung-Ku pilot! It would have been better if they'd had him pack all his belongings in a tiny bedroll and head for the next airport on foot or something else more in the spirit of his old TV show.