Golden Knight WS Demo Team

[sdctlc 0]

Just flipping through my June Skydiving and I see a Pic of a 3-way WS jump with the 3 all decked out in Golden Knight suits! A GTI and 2 FireBirds it looks like????

Sounds like they are getting coached by Campos and might add it to the show. Scott you wanna share any info?? Interested how they might incorporate WS with the demo shows

Scott C.

"He who Hesitates Shall Inherit the Earth!"

[SkymonkeyONE 4]

Not entirely accurate. The first person on the Golden Knights to fly a wingsuit was Jon Ewald. Jon was already a wingsuit pilot when he transered to active duty and tried out for the Golden Knights. He owned a GTi at the time. I taught his sister Jill to fly a wingsuit at the Mardi Gras boogie at moss point the year before Jon made the team (in his suit).

Fast forward to Jon being a "new guy" on the team and him trying to get the leadership interested in putting some people on the black and gold demo teams in wingsuits. He did not get much attention that year because of his newbie status, but the next year he was successful in getting the unit to purchase one custom-logoed GTi using end-of-year funds. He got the suit and was allowed to start flying it out of GK aircraft and was tentatively given permission to get others on the team involved. As he was not a BMI, the team contracted me (two years ago) to run him through the course. This, so he could train others up within the organization without having to ask for outside help. As a BMI he has/had free usage of all available BirdMan demo suits then, but they were pretty tied up and only a few people got trained. Jon was given permission to order a couple more suits, so he went ahead and ordered those two Firebirds you saw in the pictures. I am actually surprised that the team didn't use the last winter training (in Yuma) to nail down a routine for wingsuiters in their regular program. In my mind it's a no-brainer to replace the diamond trackers with guys in wingsuits. Talk about range of flight!

Jon's a good pilot and he did well in the BMI course. There are a couple of other great wingsuit pilots on the team as well, but I doubt you will ever see them on the road since they both belong to the competition teams: Chris Moore and Kurt Eisenbarger. I trained them both at Eloy three years ago.

Chuck

[LouDiamond 1]

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Sounds like they are getting coached by Campos and might add it to the show. Scott you wanna share any info??

That is correct, Jon E. has been working to get more people on the GKs interested in wingsuiting to include the Command. It's taken him awhile but he trained the two others in the picture on how to fly and we will be training another person this thursday. With the Commands approval, I have been working with Jon and the others to help further develop their skills and talent pool, so they can possibly incoorporate it into their show. I cannot say that it will or will not find a place in the show at this point, that is ultimately up to the GK Command.

I have spoken to their Commander, who happens to be my former boss, on how to better support them in developing the capability and also learned of the issues they as a demo team have to work around to try and incoorporate something like wingsuiting into an already airtight, by the numbers show.While I don't think its impossible, it may prove to be a challenge as there are several moving parts in the air and on the ground that all have to mesh up perfectly for things to go as planned during a typical show.

In the meantime, Jon has taken on the task to further develop the capability within the team itself for future consideration. I will say that Jon deserves all the credit for where he has taken this capability on the GKs as it has been a goal of his since he became a BMI about 3 years ago and he hasn't lost sight of it despite his very full demo/show schedule. I am honored that he sought me out to help him with this task and to be associated with it. Hopefully it will make it into some part of the show as I know little and big kids alike will be drawn to a man flying across the sky like a bird, not to mention the attention the suit will get when worn on the ground afterwards. Jon and I have a lot of ideas on things that could potentially be done and will be working on testing those ideas out in the near future.

"It's just skydiving..additional drama is not required"
Some people dream about flying, I live my dream
SKYMONKEY PUBLISHING

[McDuck 0]

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I have spoken to their Commander, who happens to be my former boss,

You mean that you used to work for the Eco-Terrorist?

No wonder Jon was able to stay with me when you brought him along on one of my flights. While I was focussed on not screwing up and causing myself a problem, I DID see him right there on my right most of the time. Sounds like he's had both of the best helping to get him where he is now.

Kevin - Sonic Beef #5 - OrFun #28
"I never take myself too seriously, 'cuz everybody know fat birds don't fly." - FLC
Online communities: proof that people never mature much past high school.

[LouDiamond 1]

For those of you who haven't seen or don't get Skydiving magazine, the picture can be seen here

"It's just skydiving..additional drama is not required"
Some people dream about flying, I live my dream
SKYMONKEY PUBLISHING

[piisfish 140]

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For those of you who haven't seen or don't get Skydiving magazine, the picture can be seen here

sweet. I prefer the gold of the middle suit.

scissors beat paper, paper beat rock, rock beat wingsuit - KarlM

[monkey1031 0]

jeezus...

blast from the past.

i took jon-boy on his first wingsuit jump way back in the day...

cool to see how far the lil' fugger has gone with it.

-smd7

[kallend 2,026]

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For those of you who haven't seen or don't get Skydiving magazine, the picture can be seen here

sweet. I prefer the gold of the middle suit.

Reminiscent of bumble bees!

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.