Misty Blues ready to ‘do something crazy’ at Dayton Air Show

Bambi Knight jumps out of planes to get over her fear of heights.

The Park City, Utah resident is a member of the Misty Blues all-women sky diving demonstration team set to perform this weekend at the Vectren Dayton Air Show.

“I have a fear of heights so I went out to conquer my fear,” she said in an interview at Dayton International Airport, where the show will be staged. “It didn’t work. I’m still afraid of heights, but I’m working on it.”

From 5,000 feet in the air, a parachutist will jump out of a plane to unfurl a giant American flag at the beginning of the show and the team perform a second time with more flags and banners flying.

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The 10-member Ann Arbor, Mich.-based team, several of whom will be in Dayton, jump at 10 air shows a year and at other events, from football and baseball games to special gatherings, members said.

The all-women team welcomes the opportunity to be role models for younger women and girls, members said.

“Because it’s an all-women team, we do a lot of demos where it’s kind of like to inspire younger women that they can get into the sport or do anything in aviation,” said Shay Decourcy, 36, of Rochester Hills, Mich.

She enlisted on the team four years ago because she wanted to “do something crazy.”

“I went into skydiving because I used to work in insurance and I was just bored with the monotony of every day doing the same thing,” said Decourcy, who is a real estate agent and carpenter when she’s not parachuting.

Misty Blues parachutist Kristen Tebow, an electrical engineer and manager by trade, relishes jumping out of a plane to take the sport “to the next level.”

“For me, that’s exhilarating and challenging at the same time,” the 35-year-old Ann Arbor, Mich, resident said.

The team has parachuted out of a Cessna plane to a lumbering C-130 troop transport.

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And sometimes, a few admit, they get scared.

“Initially, it’s a little overwhelming, but you get to a comfort level with it and you never fully lose (fear), but I think that is a good thing because I think it gives you that respect you need to continue in the sport,” said Aleth Matrone, 53, of Kutztown, Pa., and an insurance litigation consultant.

“I think focus also helps,” added Knight. “If you’re focusing on the job that you need to do, you’re not concerned with the fear that’s coming in.”

Several say the dream of flying propelled them to perform as parachutists.

“When I was a little girl growing up, every penny I threw in a wishing well was to wish I could fly,” Matrone said. “I had dreams about flying I wanted to be able to just unencumbered fly through the air and free fall is seriously the closest you can get to flying.”

Knight, who has 3,500 jumps — the most in the group — has jumped with the team since it launched more than three decades ago. She said she nearly quit two years ago.

“I’m getting older (but) there’s something about the freedom when you get out of an airplane and that focus where the rest of the world goes somewhere and you feel this sense of freedom that you feel when you get out and fly around that I have never experienced,” she said. “It’s a three dimensional sport, so when you’re flying with friends it’s like dancing at different levels. They’re up here, down here, over there, but you all want to get together at the same level and I never had a sport that was three-dimensional and so much fun.”

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