BILLINGS — The U.S. Army Golden Knights, one of the military's elite aerial demonstration teams, performed at a Billings air show alongside the Blue Angels.
Freefalling at 120 miles per hour, the Golden Knights brought precision parachuting to the skies over Billings — a spectacle that is anything but ordinary.
Watch the story from 10,000 feet in the sky:
"Freefall is about 120 miles per hour," Staff Sergeant Eric Wood said Saturday.
For some people, jumping out of a plane sounds unthinkable. For Wood, it became a career.
"I've been jumping out of planes for 13 years now," Wood said.
His path to the Golden Knights came down to a simple question.
"Well the Golden Knights are the best...Why can't I do that full-time? That's what led me to go to selection," Wood said.
The Golden Knights are one of only three Department of Defense aerial demonstration teams.
U.S. Army Golden Knights Senior Instructor Pilot David Wier said their work extends well beyond air shows.
"We do air shows, we do sporting events, race car events, we do tandem camps," Wier said.
Wood said fear is not quite the right word for what he experiences.
"I wouldn't say fear is, maybe a little bit anxious here and there depending on what kind of jump we're doing, how technical is it," Wood said.
That technical precision comes from thousands of jumps, hours of training, and constant communication between the team in the air and the crew on the ground.
"Thousands of cumulative jumps practicing all the different high speed maneuvers," Wood said.
That communication never stops.
"It's a nonstop communication from ground to the pilots, back end, team leaders, jumpers, everybody's on the same page all the time," Wood said.
Wood said some of the maneuvers the Golden Knights perform go against everything most skydivers are taught.
"Flying your parachute right into somebody else and building those kind of formations. We're coming in and sweeping in over a hundred miles an hour and plane it out," Wood said.
For Wier, performing in Billings carried personal meaning.
"My first air show I ever went to was here in Billings when I was probably eight years old. So to actually come back here and fly in the air show, it means a lot," Wier said.
The Golden Knights are set to perform again Sunday at the Yellowstone International Air Show.
