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“Ready…Set…”
The U.S. Army Golden Knights Parachute Team performed at the 2011 Open House at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland. Before boarding their Fokker Friendship airplane, the team performed a "dirt dive"— a ground-level walk-through of their free fall maneuvers—on the apron in front of the hangar that holds Air Force One.
The Fokker climbed in a wide spiral over Washington before reaching its station at 12,600 feet, directly above air show center, in time to release the jumpers at high noon. With the two rear doors gaping open and the wind howling, temperatures inside the airplane were some 40 degrees cooler than the spring day on the ground below.
The first jumper out of the aircraft buckles a canister of smoke to his heel and wraps the release string around his hand. (The smoke is meant not just to wow the crowd, but to alert other jumpers to wind conditions.) He salutes upon stepping out the door—a Knights tradition.
(1:44)
Photos and Video: Roger Mola
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Comments (2)
This really gave me that old feeling. As much as anything else it is the audio-- just the actual sound, no goofy music. My friends from back in the day- a Navy Sport Parachute team 30 + years ago- thought the same. Loved it.
Posted by Steve Govus on July 5,2011 | 02:20 PM
As a TV journalist for the CBS affiliate in Baltimore, I've been aboard that plane with those guys and witnessed that exact moment. It is unbelievably wierd when they all jump out of the plane. Unlike that jump, when they dove out above Oriole Park @ Camden Yards they all went out one right after another on both sides.
One second there is a plane full of people... the next it's me and my photographer, wind noise and us laughing.
We were strapped in on a short umbilical. I will never forget that flight.
Posted by Mike Schuh on August 20,2011 | 10:03 AM