Cleveland Airshow: Flying With The US Army Golden Knights [VIDEO]

As a member of the media I was vetted and given permission to fly with the US Army elite skydivers/parachutists of the Golden Knights. I was part of the media selected for their afternoon flight and lots of paperwork had to be filled out. Before the jump experience even was committed to, lots of info was emailed to us beforehand.

Probably the most important was to bring warm clothing since at high altitudes, it gets very cold. In my case, we went up to 14,500 feet and I sat right next to the exit door. Boy, was it cold! The members of the team were very friendly and cordial and I was able to ask a variety of questions before the flight. But I really wanted to focus on catching them jumping out of the plane and catching them in focus for the brief time they would be visible.

So I put together a short (around 4 1/2 minutes) video of the jumps. Since it was a prop driven plane with the door open, the sounds are quite loud.

Here's the link to my YouTube video:

Photos and video by Alex Belisle, Faces of Lakewood