Being the only girl on the Army plane, soaring up to 12,500
feet, I was privileged to watch the Golden Knights prepare to descend towards
the crowd of the Florida International Airshow in Punta Gorda.
Pulling on their suits, strapping smoke cartridges to their ankles, the
guys explained how they use their digital altitude meter on their wrists, and
another meter with a needle, which shows when they are in the white, yellow or
red when falling towards the earth. They
alternated from joking to almost somber, and showed me how to do their
handshake, which is more of a sliding hand slap, followed by a fist bump.
“The first trick we do is a baton pass, which is unique to
the Golden Knights,” said sergeant first class Justin Little, 35, from Texas. The
display of parachutists culminates with a diamond pattern jump comprised of
four jumpers simultaneously free falling.
Dan Buchanan, a paraplegic hang glider that was featured in
the air show, said “I’ve done a few tandem jumps with the team, and it gets
cold up there that high in the air. Not only do they have the doors of the
plane open for the jumpers, but the temperature gets cooler the higher you go
up.”
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| 75-year-old pilot Gary "Psycho" Ward poses with Rebecca and her daughter, Alex Oates and his stepfather, and paraplegic hang glider Dan Buchanan |
I was lucky enough to talk with Buchanan at Hurricane
Charley’s in Punta Gorda the night before I was able to fly along with the
Golden Knights, as he advised me to bring a sweatshirt or something with long
sleeves. Even with a my heavy hoodie, my
toes got cold through my shoes and socks, and my hands were freezing. The Golden Knights were generous enough to
offer me some gloves when they noticed me rubbing my hands together to try to
keep them warm.
On Friday night, the first day of the airshow, Buchanan had
fireworks blazing from his hang glider, illuminating the sky. Saturday and
Sunday, he had a trail of smoke following behind him, complete with balloons
raising up. The smoke trails are very similar to the smoke use by the Golden
Knights, as they also had a trail of sparkler-like fireworks as they fell
towards the earth. The difference is
that the parachutists strap the pyrotechnics smoke, which is comprised of two
canisters, to their ankles, and Buchanan had the smoke affixed to his hang
glider.
In order to become part of the Arm’s elite Golden Knights
team, there is a vigorous assessment selection process that is two months long. “You earn a spot on the team,” explained Sergeant
first class Cory Rush from Indiana, who recently joined this team of elite
jumpers.
“After my first skydive, I was hooked. I knew I wanted to do
this for the rest of my life, and I found out about the Army’s Golden Knights,”
said Rush, who has been in the military for 13 years and was previously
stationed in Germany.
The daredevil activity does cause injury, as Rush well knows
after tearing a tendon in his ankle in February. “Stress can cause issues, so
relax and do the best that you can.”
Doing tandem stunts as well as free falling from 12,600
feet, the jumpers learn to communicate without talking, as they cannot hear
each other when falling from the sky. Even on the plane, it is easier to use hand
signals, especially since most have earplugs in to drown out the loud sounds of
the plane and the rush of air from the open doors of the plane. Rush said the best part, “is camaraderie with
the team. It’s a difficult selection process for the team, and it’s a very tight-knit
family.”
“It’s neat to see the transition of their thought process of
jumping. One minute, they will be jovial and joking, and in a flash, they will
be very serious with no talking,” said Buchanan on Saturday. On Sunday, I was able to see for myself what
he had described. Before take off, the
guys are inspected for safety, making sure they are okay to jump, then they gather
in a huddle, heads down in somber seriousness, then they explode in a cheer.
It’s business first, as they ensure things are where they
need to be, that everyone who is riding along, such as myself, is strapped in
according to their satisfaction. Cameras
and cell phones are also strapped in, to ensure equipment does not go flying
out of the open doors of the plane. As
they are taking off, the guys turn and each make sure each other’s pack is
strapped up safely, then they explode into a quick chant and cheer as the plane
leaves the ground.
The view from the open door is much like looking out the
window of any other plane taking off, but what is different is that these
daredevils stick their heads and other body parts out of the open door. They encourage us to stick out a hand to see
what it is like, ensuring that we are strapped in tightly, even though they
walk around the plane like it is on land, not fearing the open door or the tiny
specks of land below – probably because they are wearing parachutes. The houses get smaller, and the Gulf of
Mexico looks like a pretty blue splash from that high.
As the plane rises higher, and the temperature gets colder,
the Golden Knights stick their heads out the open door and scout their mark to
land. To test the winds, they drop a
series of gold and black ribbons out the door, watching to see where they land,
so they know how to compensate for any wind speeds. SSG Kevin Severin, 33, of Arizona, makes
notes of the locations, and he spots for each of the jumpers, calling out, “hot
target,” before they jump.
When he pops up from kneeling, the parachutists know that it
is time. “Ready” is called out. In the blink of an eye, the Golden Knights
are sucked out of the open door of the plane.
It happens so fast; it is hard to get a good picture. Any hesitation from the camera will cause a
photographer to miss the shot, as there is literally only a second of one of
the Golden Knights leaning out and getting sucked down towards the earth by
gravity. One second they are standing
there, and the next thing you know, the plane is getting emptied, as they’re
gone.
There is a slight suction sound that can be heard as the
winds grab hold of their bodies and suck them out the plane. Some salute as they jump. Others have this wicked daredevil smile.
Next after the airshow, the Golden Knights traveled to
Winston-Salem, NC, for the Wake Forest versus Army football game. They travel around the country to different
events, but they don’t often jump in the snow and ice, due to the potential for
injuries, so there is a season for them to perform. In the off season, they can often be found in
Homestead, FL, practicing their jumps.
As a former resident of Homestead, living only three miles from
the Airforce base, I often saw parachutists falling from the sky. One time, my mother and I saw more than a
dozen jumpers, and as we watched in awe at their gracefulness, we became
horrified when we saw one’s parachute twist, and the skydiver began plummeting
towards the earth. Unbeknownst to us at
the time, this is actually a trick that the Golden Knights perform, as they
imitate a chute that has not opened, and they recover with another cute,
packing a total of three parachutes for this stunt that they regularly perform.
While the Golden Knights learn to communicate without words,
relying on hand gestures and becoming as close knit as a family, other acts in
the Florida International Airshow are more of an actual family affair. Bill and
Scott “Scooter” Yoak, as well as Joe and Jim Tobul are two pairs of father and
son pilots.
“Dad and I bought our plane in 1981, along with a trunk load
of parts. It took us 10 years to build, and our first flight was December 7,
1991. It’s been a labor of love,” said Jim.
His father taught him how to fly when he was 9-years-old,
sparking his interest in warbirds. Jim joined the Air National Guard in South
Carolina, and he is set to retire this week, as he moved to Wyoming. He
recently opened a hydraulic cylinder business in Wausau, WI, selling telescoping cylinders.
The pilot of Dracula also learned to fly from his father.
“I’m the third generation of flyers. This year marks 50 years of my family
flying, and it marks 20 years of me flying is a pilot,” said Kyle Franklin of
Franklin’s Flying Circus.
So many of the pilots
make flying look easy, but the sport is quite dangerous. Herbert Mairzedt from
Austria is a survivor of a plane that crashed in 2015, by Orlando, just south
of Leesburg, landing in a forest. He
said he was nervous to try to land in the water, not knowing if there were
alligators lurking in Florida, so he aimed for the trees when the gas line of
the plane malfunctioned. Lucky to
survive with only minor scratches, he was back up the air only a few days later,
and he said he felt a kinship when he met the pilot who had landed the plane in
the Hudson River.
“There's not many people can land a plane with mechanical
malfunctions and live to tell about it,” he explained. For more on Mairzedt, and some amazing photos
of his mangled plane, visit www.mairzedt.net.
For more on the Florida International Airshow, visit www.floridairshow.com. For more by Marisa, visit www.lulu.com/spotlight/thorisaz
and www.twitter.com/booksnbling.
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