Army Sgt. Jason Bauder paused for a moment at the edge of the 13,000-foot drop, the wind fast and frigid in the open doors of the airship, then he jumped.
Bauder, the youngest of the 12 Golden Knights, the Army's parachute demonstration team, said he was not afraid -- diving out of a Fokker C-31A and plummeting thousands of feet to the ground feels almost normal to him now.
"It doesn't feel like falling," he said. Bauder has parachuted more than 1,400 times. "You're in control. The ground isn't just rushing up to you. It feels like flying," he said Saturday.
The Golden Knights performed as a part of the Thunder Over the Rock air show at Little Rock Air Force Base in Jacksonville. It's just one of the performances in dozens of stops that the team makes throughout the year.
From the ground, the sky divers appear as small specks flinging from the aircraft, barely visible, before the divers deploy their parachutes, ignite smoke canisters and maneuver to the ground.
The elite team performs in formations, its members holding tight to one another as they fall and then guiding their parachutes to land safely on a small target.
Before the plane's wheels leave the tarmac, the Golden Knights prepare for hours for each flight. They ready the troopship and their gear to make the jump. They also practice each of the maneuvers while on the ground, ensuring that everyone knows his position.
Bauder, who joined the Army at 18 after high school and was an infantry mortar man for five years, said he first went sky-diving to check something off his bucket list.
"I just wanted to try it, so one day I went to a civilian sky-diving place and, within an hour, I was in the air," he said. "The first time I jumped, I was stuck. I just said, 'How do I learn to do this?'"
After making numerous jumps as a civilian, Bauder said he heard about the Golden Knights and decided to apply to join the team.
"I knew they were really selective, but 10 grueling weeks later I was on the team," he said.
That was eight months ago. Now, Bauder spends almost every weekend flying to a different air show, strapping on his parachute and jumping.
As the team headed aloft for Saturday's jump, each member took a different approach in preparing for the quick trip down. Some men laid their heads back against the netting seats and closed their eyes as the Fokker crept higher and higher above the crowd.
Most laughed and cracked jokes, walking up and down the aisle in the plane.
"Do you like your job? Well, it has its ups and downs," Staff Sgt. Ryan Reis said, laughing for a few minutes before cracking another. "Do you like my suit? It's the latest fall fashion."
Others on the plane checked and re-checked the smoke grenades bound to their feet. A little black string is tied from the trigger of the smoke grenade to a part of the jumpers' upper legs, where the jumpers can easily grab them and detonate the grenades while falling to earth.
"We make these ourselves," Sgt. 1st Class Mike Koch said, speaking loudly to be heard over the noise of the engine. He gestured to the boot slings that held the smoke grenades in place.
"We sew them ourselves, like we do with our patches," he said. "I bet you didn't know that."
When the light above the open, roaring doors turns green, each man stands and readies to make the leap. Bauder is somewhere in the middle of the group.
As soon as his feet leave the plane's metal floor, he's "flying" again.
The Golden Knights are scheduled to perform again today at the Thunder Over the Rock show at the base in Jacksonville. The gates open at 8:30 a.m.
Metro on 10/28/2018