USAF Academy Student Catches Big Air On Wings Of Blue

By Nancy K. Crevier

What is so fun about falling at 120 miles per hour out of a plane at 10,000 feet?

“It’s hard to describe,” said Drew Taylor, a 2007 Newtown High School graduate and a junior at the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., where he is a jump instructor and a member of the elite Wings of Blue demonstration parachuting team. “It’s incredible. You pull the ’chute and suddenly you’re just floating under the canopy, 2 or 3,000 feet up. It’s very peaceful.”

Drew was initiated in late May at a Blue Suit Awards Ceremony at the academy as one of the new members of the 50-member Wings of Blue, an honor he acquired following intensive training. According to information provided to Drew’s parents, Fred and Kaki Taylor, and Dave Toller, sports information director, US Air Force Academy, each Wings of Blue cadet must be a qualified jump master and instructor in the parachuting program, and maintain high academic and military standards. Selection for the team is based upon an individual’s maturity, abilities, academic, and military standing.

Beginning in the summer of 2008, Drew took part in a basic ten-day parachuting program that included a ground program of more than 30 hours, five sky dives consisting of ten-second free falls and a manually pulled parachute cord, and a demanding final test. “The academy is the only drop center in the world when the first drop is completely solo,” said Drew during a recent summer visit to Newtown. But the Airmanship 490 Summer Program is so comprehensive that his first drop was far more of an exciting moment than nerve-wracking, he said. “We are trained so well during that program that no matter what happens, we know what to do,” said Drew.

Drew had not considered skydiving when he enrolled in the academy, but when he heard about the optional summer course he wanted to go through with it. “I went to the academy for the opportunities it provides,” said Drew. “I thought that skydiving would be an amazing experience — and it was,” he added.

More than 400 cadets go through the Airmanship 490 Summer Program between freshman and sophomore year. “Sophomore year, we try out for Wings of Green, and about 25 cadets make it into that program,” explained Drew. More training at the academy and other facilities, such as the vertical wind tunnel in California, follow acceptance into the Wings of Green. Training includes learning how to properly pack the 20-pound parachute and adding to jumps to improve skydiving skills. Drew tries to get in at least one jump each month and has set himself a goal of doing 500 jumps to get his professional rating. “I do some fun jumping on my own, too,” said Drew.

The spring of sophomore year, Drew and the other members of the Wings of Green also studied to become jump masters for the summer program, the aspect of parachuting that he said he best likes. “I love being an instructor and teaching the young men and women everything they need to know, and then watch them fly away. I like seeing the joy it brings them when they do the first jump successfully and realize they really can do it,” said Drew.

Not all of those who make it into Wings of Green are initiated into the Wings of Blue. School grades that do not meet the high standards leave some by the wayside, and others find that they do not take to being instructors, a requirement for achieving Wings of Blue. Still others discover that the rigors of skydiving are incompatible with other interests. Drew, however, eagerly looks forward to being part of the demonstration team.

This year, as a junior, he will provide ground support for the Wings of Blue team at air shows across the country. The Wings of Blue demonstration team performs jumps not only at air shows, but skydives into the US Air Force Academy football field at halftime, and into professional football team fields, as well, taking away the breath of thousands of spectators. The team does approximately 50 demonstrations each year.

Learning The Tricks

The demonstration team, a separate team from the Wings of Blue competition team, usually jumps from Dehavilland UV-18B Twin Otter aircrafts and performs a variety of “tricks” as they jump from the planes. A jumper may go head first at a high rate of speed, followed by another jumper at a slow speed, both demonstrating the control a skydiver has over his/her parachute. Smoke jumps are always crowd-pleasers, said Drew, in which the parachutist has a small smoke grenade attached to the ankle. When the pin is released during the jump, a trail of smoke follows the jumper down to the ground. Other demonstrations may include up to 15 jumpers at a time, all of whom coordinate pulling the parachutes so that they end up all in a row floating to the earth.

“It’s a lot of fun to jump. Then you land and people come up to you and ask questions. The little kids all want to put your parachute on. I guess it appeals to me because I love talking to people and telling them about the program,” said Drew.

There is always an element of danger, however, in the art of skydiving, and not every jump goes as smoothly as the jumper would like. “In one jump, my pilot chute — the small chute that pulls out the main parachute — got stuck in my leg strap and I spent the next 1,000 feet pulling the pilot chute free,” he said. There was no feeling of panic, though, said Drew. “It’s weird, but your training kicks in and you know what you have to do.” A good yank freed the pilot chute, and he drifted safely to ground.

What A Mom Will Do

His parents have always been supportive of what he wants to do, said Drew, but it did take a little while for them to warm up to the idea of their son jumping from airplanes. His mom, however, went the extra mile to understand her son’s passion with sky diving — an extra 14,000 feet up in the air, actually — in joining Drew, July 9, for a jump at a drop center in New York State.

“Skydiving wasn’t even on my ‘bucket list,’” laughed Ms Taylor. “But ever since he did his first jump and was so excited, I wanted to know what he was talking about,” she said.

During his summer break, Drew had checked out the nearby drop center and had jumped there a few times. Then he suggested to his mother that she might like to try it, as well.

She was familiar with the process, as Drew had walked his family through the whole training process during their visit to the academy in May, so she was not totally uncomfortable with the thought of skydiving. She and her husband also had the opportunity during that visit to see Drew jump. “I wasn’t scared watching him fall from the plane. He has some of the best training in the world from the academy. All I saw as he landed was this huge grin,” said Ms Taylor.

So when the chance to jump with Drew arose, she decided to step up to the challenge. “I wanted to better understand what Drew is doing, and relate to what he is talking about. And what mom, at the age of 50, gets to jump with her son from an airplane? It was an honor to jump with him,” she said.

Because Drew is not yet trained in tandem jumping, he jumped solo ahead of her, and Ms Taylor jumped in tandem with an instructor. “It was an amazing feeling,” she said. “There was a sensory rush of cold and wind, and then just silence when the instructor pulled the chute.”

She is able now to really understand the skill and precision that the Wings of Blue team members must master in the air, Ms Taylor said. The Wings of Blue is an amazing team, she said, one that is foremost concerned with safety and doing it the right way, but also a team that has fun with the experience.

Drew has been assigned to the Nellis Air Force Base outside of Las Vegas, Nev., for the remainder of the summer. When he returns to Colorado Springs in the fall, he will continue studying for his degree in mechanical engineering, training, teaching new jumpers, and increasing the numbers for his jumps as he prepares for his senior year as an active jumper with the Wings of Blue. When he graduates in 2011, he will enter the enlisted force for five years as a second lieutenant. “I hope one day to be deployed overseas,” he said. “It’s a great opportunity and I love to serve my country.”