{"id":9711,"date":"2018-08-28T10:35:02","date_gmt":"2018-08-28T15:35:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.envoyair.com\/?p=9711"},"modified":"2018-08-28T10:35:02","modified_gmt":"2018-08-28T15:35:02","slug":"world-record-holding-skydiver-and-pilot-seeks-adventures-at-envoy-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.envoyair.com\/2018\/08\/28\/world-record-holding-skydiver-and-pilot-seeks-adventures-at-envoy-2\/","title":{"rendered":"World-record holding skydiver and pilot seeks adventures at Envoy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In the video below, a group of thrill-seeking skydivers jump from thousands of feet in the air, looking like a smack\u00a0of luminescent jellyfish Power Rangers flying\u00a0through the night sky. Among the group is Envoy First Officer Thomas Johnston, who, along with his team, owns the world record for\u00a0a 33-person large formation night jump.<\/p>\n<p><iframe src=\"\/\/players.brightcove.net\/4186268195001\/default_default\/index.html?videoId=5827470115001\" width=\"700\" height=\"350\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Thomas&#8217; fascination with skydiving started at 19 years old and his love of aviation from as young pmang pokeras two. Growing up in a family of aviators, it&#8217;s not surprising that Thomas picked a career as a commercial pilot.<\/p>\n<p>Read along as Thomas explains his love for aviation, the &#8220;adrenaline rush&#8221;\u00a0and the special friendships he&#8217;s made in the sky.<\/p>\n<h3>Born to fly<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.envoyair.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/IMG-FLT-Thomas-Johnston-skydive-blog-10.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-9740\" src=\"https:\/\/www.envoyair.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/IMG-FLT-Thomas-Johnston-skydive-blog-10.jpg\" alt=\"IMG-FLT-Thomas-Johnston-skydive-blog (10)\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>What came first, you wanting to be a pilot or a skydiver?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Being a pilot came first, because I started flying when I was very young &#8211; 2 or 3 years old. I come from a family of pilots &#8211; my great uncle flew B-24s in WWII; and my dad, a handful of cousins, and my uncle were also pilots. Primarily it was my uncle George who taught me to fly. He was a former Navy P-3 pilot who flew for Eastern Airlines for 17 years.<\/p>\n<p>My dad and he had a grass runway and a Cessna 182 at our farm in Illinois, and I would fly with my uncle just about every evening in the summer. I made my first unassisted takeoff and landing at 9 \u2013 sitting on couch cushions so I could see over the nose.<\/p>\n<p>I got into skydiving when I turned 19. I had two cousins that were skydivers, and I always looked up to them. We had an annual fly-in at the farm every year, and calvin lee pokermy uncle would fly them up and they would jump in.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.envoyair.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/IMG-FLT-Thomas-Johnston-skydive-blog-8.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-9738\" src=\"https:\/\/www.envoyair.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/IMG-FLT-Thomas-Johnston-skydive-blog-8.jpg\" alt=\"IMG-FLT-Thomas-Johnston-skydive-blog (8)\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>My cousin Rich ended up helping me get a flying job at Skydive Chicago, where I worked as a pilot flying jumpers to altitude. I remember flying right trail in a 7-airplane formation, seeing skydivers zoom past my wingtip like giant birds and thinking to myself, \u201cThat is cool! I want to do that someday.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I didn\u2019t know it then, but that ended up being my foot in the door to participating in skydiving world records. After many years of training, I earned a spot on the Vertical Elite world record skydiving team. Since then, I have been a part of six different large formation skydiving world records.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What about aviation excites you as a pilot?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve been doing it for so long that it\u2019s just a part of who I am. I think above all, I enjoyed the journey to get here and the adventures and memories that went along with it.<\/p>\n<p>From student pilot to private, instrument, flight instructing, flying skydivers and then to Envoy \u2013 it\u2019s been a really fun experience building my way up to where I am now. Now that I\u2019m at Envoy, every day is a new adventure of its own.<\/p>\n<p><strong>As a skydiver?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Initially it was the excitement and the adrenaline rush that drew me to the sport.\u00a0I think the best part now is the people I get to meet.<\/p>\n<p>Getting to jump with people from all different backgrounds is an adventure, and these adventures make unbreakable bonds. Some of my best friends in the world are skydivers, and I wouldn\u2019t have gotten to meet them unless the sport brought us together.<\/p>\n<h3>Jump for joy at Envoy<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.envoyair.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/IMG-FLT-Thomas-Johnston-skydive-blog-9.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-9739\" src=\"https:\/\/www.envoyair.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/IMG-FLT-Thomas-Johnston-skydive-blog-9.jpg\" alt=\"IMG-FLT-Thomas-Johnston-skydive-blog (9)\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Do you still get the same thrill you did from day one?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In the beginning, it was for the excitement of stepping into the unknown and the adrenaline rush that comes from doing it. After a handful of jumps, the adrenaline wears off and there are other reasons that keep me around.<\/p>\n<p>Mostly it\u2019s for the feeling of flying in the sky. From an outsider\u2019s perspective, it looks like we are just falling. But in relation to the person I am jumping with, I am also flying \u2013 I can move my body to deflect the air to push my body to go up, down, and across the sky in relation to the other person.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.envoyair.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/IMG-FLT-Thomas-Johnston-skydive-blog-7.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-9742\" src=\"https:\/\/www.envoyair.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/IMG-FLT-Thomas-Johnston-skydive-blog-7.jpg\" alt=\"IMG-FLT-Thomas-Johnston-skydive-blog (7)\" \/><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<h5 style=\"text-align: left;\">First Officer Thomas Johnston, left, with fellow First Officer Tony Sabos.<\/h5>\n<p><strong>What were the main reasons you chose to fly for Envoy?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>One of the best things about working at Envoy is the ability to have a work-life balance and schedule flexibility. Having a schedule with chunks of time where I can work, and chunks of time where I can travel is priceless. It enables a lifestyle that is almost impossible to have with a typical Monday-to-Friday job.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What does your family think of your skydiving escapades?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>My mom and Dad are usually quiet but supportive. I like to call it <em>Type 2<\/em> supportive.<\/p>\n<p>For instance, when we are doing these world record attempts, it definitely makes them nervous. They definitely don\u2019t push me to do it, but they are quietly supportive.<\/p>\n<p>They don\u2019t really say much about it because they are worried about me. But as soon as we set a new world record, my mom is the first one to go home and brag to all of her friends about me.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.envoyair.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/IMG-FLT-Thomas-Johnston-skydive-blog-11.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-9750\" src=\"https:\/\/www.envoyair.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/IMG-FLT-Thomas-Johnston-skydive-blog-11.jpg\" alt=\"DCIM100GOPROG0150312.\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>What records have you and your team broken?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Every couple of years we try and break our previous world records. This summer we are going for a 200-person head down formation.<\/p>\n<p>Current records I have been a part of:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>72-way Head Up World Record<\/li>\n<li>164-way poker online freeLarge Vertical Formation, Head Down (pictured above)<\/li>\n<li>33-way poker online freeLarge Vertical Formation, Head Down\u00a0at Night<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the video below, a group of thrill-seeking skydivers jump from thousands of feet in the air, looking like a smack\u00a0of luminescent jellyfish Power Rangers flying\u00a0through the night sky. Among the group is Envoy First Officer Thomas Johnston, who, along with his team, owns the world record for\u00a0a 33-person large formation night jump. Thomas&#8217; fascination [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":42106,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[105,64,106,65,66,77,144,86,51,68,462,98,80,463,464,465,466],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.envoyair.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9711"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.envoyair.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.envoyair.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.envoyair.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.envoyair.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.envoyair.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9711\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.envoyair.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.envoyair.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.envoyair.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.envoyair.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}