Skydive Lillo, Madrid, Spain Swoop Pond

Continuous improvement are being made to the facilities at this dropzone. This is clearly a good indication of customer services.

There are two landing areas, one for students, one for experienced jumpers. Yay

The staff are professional and willing to help. Everyone is friendly. The office and manifest are super efficient.

Lots of jumping, and good food.

Watch this space!!

As no one has made a review of Lillo in a while seems like a good time to do it. I think it is important to keep the reviews on this one current, because as with any poorly run organization turnover is high, and things tend the change quite a lot. What is more, most of the reviews here are from our Jr. brother and though valuable I think the opinion of someone who has a few more destinations under there belt is important.

Location: like most DZs this one is out there. It is in the middle of a desert in central Spain about and hour and a half from Madrid by car. Car is the only good way to go. Bus is possible but cumbersome when you are carrying all your gear. That said once you are there you are pretty much set there are some good staff that will help out with getting around.

Facilities: Though there is everything you may need, not much better than a well-established club. With that there is a good packing area, grass landing area if you have 100+ jumps and decent aircraft.

-Student and low number jumpers beware. Gear rental is expensive, the highest I have seen in fact and €25 a jump, and the student landing area can be pretty nasty in places.

-Take food with you unless you want to pay your first borne to the gypsies that run the bar.


Staff: There are some awesome folks working at this dropzone. Unfortunately this is the minority and there is a lot “Big fish” in this little pond. I have never seen student have such a hard time getting help, unless they are willing to pay a lot of money, and the mentality “you are old enough get out of the house” is used far to often with AFF Students.

People: I love all of the fun Jumpers at this DZ but they have their circle and just because you are a skydiver it is not enough. Expect a really strange vibe, nothing to worry about if you are going with a group of friends but if you are flying solo I recommend making your way to Skydive Spain in Sevilla, or Empuriabrava north of Barcalona, in fact I live in Madrid and that is what I do.

Summary if you are paying all the money to come to Spain for a skydiving holiday it is the same or less money to go to Empuriabrava, or Sevilla. Note on that more experienced jumpers may prefer Empuria in the summer, and check the event for Skydive Spain in the winter there is always something scheduled. And the do Skysaver days search the website. Less experienced jumpers may prefer Skydive Spain as they tend to have more friendly winds for the novice jumper.

Tandems beware!!! Many of the tandem instructors here do not have a current and proper flight physical as required by the equipment manufacturer and the USPA. I have even seen one go down and be carried away in an ambulance for kidney problems right before getting on a load with a passenger. Many of the Camera flyers are not very good or even do not meet the minimal requirements for flying video with tandems. This is your big moment do not accept less. Look at Skydive Spain, Empuria, or Skytime Castellon.

Down at the bottom I'm leaving my previous review, written a month after my AFF, so you can all see what I wrote back then. Of course, everything seemed cool when you were a young, unexperienced newbie!

Now, almost a year after starting, and having jumped in Castellon, Sevilla, Evora and the Vector Festival in Prostejov, I think I am a bit more experienced to write again.

I have to disagree with Brian (you know I love you, man!) There are things that have been done wrong with you and other jumpers, and definitely that is a point of improvement. (I know for a fact that these kind of things are not exclusive to Lillo, though).
As Brian says, Lillo is not an awesome, party-ridden town, and Madrid is a 55-60 minute drive away. The DZ bar is not definitely the best -here I'm being extremely generous-, and its prices are too high for such a small town.
The fun jumper community is definitely quite tight, and it might seem a bit tough to get in. However, after 3 weeks there, I did make a huge bunch of friends who I consider family, now. It really is a fine group of people. They are a very tightly knit group of friends, but they all met jumping. So it's not that you can't meet anyone!
I have jumped the rental gear there quite extensively (way too much for my liking, but it took me forever to get my rig!) I've been jumping a fairly new Mirage G4, with an as well fairly new Spectra. You won't get a Micron and a Velo 67 for rent, but definitely it is not bad rental gear. And after renting in all the other DZs, this is the one with most rigs and canopy sizes.
I'm not a tandem expert, but listening to everyone here, and talking to the jumpers at the DZ, Brian's comment about them is way off-track. The guys have hundreds-thousands of tandem jumps, and they take it extremely seriously.
The cameras... Man, I really don't understand you, Brian. Saying those things is downright false, and you are playing with their livelihood. You will find some are better than others (obviously), but they all work very professionaly and do a great job.

After a year, you see things that are not so awesome as you thought when you were a newbie; you wish there were other things you have seen in other DZs; you miss some things and you would change others. But, in the end, I stand by my previous words: Lillo is a great place to make friends and enjoy a great time skydiving.

______________________________________

Although I'm pretty new, I can definitely say this place has an awesome vibe. Everyone has a great time always, with tons of people staying overnight either camping or sharing rooms in town during the weekends. The staff is superb, the assortment of rental gear extense, the coaches extremely well prepared (be it free fly, canopy, atmo, relative...)
All in all, a great place to go!

Thanks Guys and Gals at Lillo, Jason´sorry I scare you mate but thats just how it is, Deano, mate you still sound and look like my engineer but He is OK too, Ed, thanks for the coaching amigo, I´ll remember to grab my balls every time I flare now, Stephen and all the others ....many thanks, and when you least expect it I´ll be back to bug ya.... oh yaeh the review, if you want a simply cool Dz, no BS, no ego inflated sky gods, no warm beer just a great vibe... (shit this hype must be worth at least 4 jump tickets worth)
chris

Just got back from my 3rd trip to Lillo, now planning the next.The planning is made all the easier by the excellent office staff who will happily book hotels etc for you. Replies to emails were very fast indeed

I agree with many of the comments in previous reviews but on balance my skdiving buddy and I both love this place. We are inexperienced jumpers with 80 & 100 jumps now. We went there to learn.

We made a point of getting to know the staff and it paid huge dividends. There was always a willing answer to our questions.

The 100+ landing area is small and has only 2 approaches, but hey, if you don't like crosswind landings there is plenty of room on the other landing area.

The cafe is back up and running but closed on Mondays, which is a bit of disappointment, it wouldn't be rocket science to keep it open. I understand though that it is outside the control of the DZ.

So far we haven't encountered much poor weather, a previous commentator is spot on, this is rural Spain, there in nothing to amuse you locally, Madrid and Toledo are an hours drive. Latinos, on the roundabout near the DZ has an menu in English and serves a reasonable selection of things to go with the fries!

If you're looking for hectic nightlife to go with your jumping, give Lillo a miss.

If you're looking for a professional, helpful DZ with excellent (but a bit pricey) rental gear and adequate places to chill out in the evening, give it a try.

Firstly I would like to make it clear that im relativley new to SD and only have experience of 3 DZ in different countries. At fist before arriving at Lillo I was a little unsure of what to expect after reading what at first I perceived to be mixed reviews on this site. On arrival we were met warmly by the manifest (Kathi) who instantly recognised us as brits as we were the only 2 guys on the DZ in shorts. We quickly got our selves sorted and my friend who was cracking his AFF there got straight on with ground school. As the weather was just closing in I took the opportunity to experience the 12,000ft Bar. An excellent facility that accomodated our every need from having a beer or 12 or just simply feeding us through out the week. The DZ bar is a very comfortable setting where if your not jumping you can chill out in there and get to know the 2 crazy bar staff Lourdes and Julie or sit there and mingle with many other like minded patrons and watch the many tandem videos that happen throughout the week. Rob and I went out there camping (much to the horror of the locals because it did get a little more than chilly at night) which we found was very comfortable setting and a stones throw from the bar. We quickly got aquainted with our neighbours, Carl and Tracy who live and work at the DZ who could do nothing but help us out the entire week be it either lending us Duvet (seriously it got cold), showing us around the town or even throwing a BBQ during the week where many drunken dissorderly acts did occur. The remainder of the week was a very pleasant experience where I found that all the staff present where incredibly helpfull be it tips for freefall or a hand packing. I would definitely reccomend going to Lillo not matter what your experience level just be prepared to have a beer or 2 in the evening.

A big thank you to all the staff at Lillo and look forward to returning in the future

Reading through the reviews it appears a tale of two cities with some very positive and some very negative. My own experience is mixed. I have been to 4 drop zones now in total so that is my experience to which I am comparing.
The drop zone was very quiet when I was there (July) closing early one of the days. I did get enough jumps done but this meant there was never a great feel to the place. In addition I didn’t need to know about the drop zone politics.
The main landing area is small ( an early review is generous ) and there are some obstacles in the student one which are not clear (edited in website photos) but on the whole adequate. The Cafeteria and pool have been closed for some time and it doesn’t appear they will open again due to legal issues with the airfield and local town hall. There is the sum total of 2 cafes/ bars (and one expensive hotel) in the local village so your options are limited here when you do walk what is about a mile into the village. This element of the facilities combined with the local town is probably the worst feature and was a real drag on my experience as there is NOTHING to do on the days where the weather isn’t good to jump. The website gives a different impression and talks about possibilities to go into Madrid but realistically it is about an hour and a half (assuming you forked for a rental car which I didn’t). I was there to skydive and not get langers yes… but thought there would be more of an atmosphere in the evenings instead of mind numbing boredom.

Otherwise the drop zone is as you would expect there are 2 planes ( Porter is fast the caravan struggles a bit ) there with good packing facilities and the packers for my rented equipment were good but the prices advertised don’t include things like goggles and altimeter which drive up the rental prices even further. Once there were enough people to fill the load loads got in the air quickly, being in a group is an advantage here as you can get more jumps. I completed 21 jumps in 6 days including some FS coaching; I would have liked to do more. The coaches are very good although make sure that the one you want is onsite the dates you intend to book. I was disappointed to find the canopy coach was away for the summer in competitions.

The staff were helpful but all in all I am disappointed with my trip, from the website I expected a buzzing dz and unless part of a group from Nethers, my home DZ I will try somewhere different next time.

I can't imagine any other place more suitable to learn skydiving than Skydive Lillo. At Skydive Lillo, it's all about professionalism and from my experience they care even more about you than at some other (non-)commercial dropzones. I was especially impressed by my instructor Marcus Laser.

Just back from my first visit to Lillo and I had a great time. All the staff are incredibly friendly but the place is also very professionally run. Decent planes(Porter and Grand Caravan), good landing area, nice inclusive atmosphere regardless of experience level. Only an hour from Madrid, so for me just about perfect for a long weekend away from the UK to rack up lots of jumps. Downsides? Bit of a slow Spanish start in the morning, but then again they do continue jumping till dusk. No night life to speak of and very limited eating out options in Lillo and nearby Villacanas, but if like me you are happy with a few beers and some basic food after a day's brilliant jumping, Lillo comes highly recommended. I will definitely be going back.

This is where I became a qualified skydiver and have returned 4 times in 2007. And will keep returning in the future.

Wow, reading the reviews from last year was like someone criticising me! Things must have really changed as I thought the place was absolutely fantastic. I took my AFF level 1 in Chatteris on the 16th of December, and as I didn't want to be at home for Christmas I decided that I would take a little trip over there. I will honestly say that I have never felt so welcome in a place in my life, and compared to the dusty crappy freezing cold AFF room at Chatteris, their school rooms are lovely! A/C and heating, computers set up to do their e-logbooks after each jump, just a proper set-up teaching room. The instructors are top-notch too, at one point I stalled on level 5 for quite a while, all my fault though, and I would have got peeved off at me a long time before that, but they stuck by me and I finally managed to get it! Huge grin from Rory my instructor as he was filming me being completely stable for the first time, a great feeling...

The bar has just reopened, after some legal ranglings have been going on, so that was good, the pool is empty at the mo, but seeing as it doesn't get over about 15 degrees celcius at the moment, who wants a swim anyway! With respect to refunds, I didn't really have any worries, as if I didn't jump my tickets I'd be back quite soon anyway, as I loved it. Even on Christmas Eve they had a little (well, not that little) knees up in the bar for all the people who were away from their families at Christmas, would you get that sort of thought from other DZ's? I doubt it...

I managed to fit in a ground school refresher, 11 AFF jumps, and 15 solos in the space of Monday to Sunday, although the last 15 were done in the last 3 days, including a glorious sunset load. Just beautiful. And the student area has such a nice softness that it doesn't matter how you land, which is good as my flaring accuracy leaves a little to be desired sometimes, I have had some funky landings I can tell you, but I've always walked away!

The only bad thing I can say about it is the gear rental does bump the price of a jump ticket quite high, but if you've got your own kit then there's not to worry about!

Can't wait to go back, even looking at Easyjet prices for the start of Feb!

Just try the place, and if you think it sucks then go to Ocana. There's word about that they'll be opening a subsidiary DZ in Portugal soon as well, so I may have a wander over there too, but not until I get another couple of days jumping in Lillo first!

Thanks to all, Marcus, Kathi, Rory, Jason, Vinni, Mikey, Rory, Joachim, Danny, Ianoa, Edu and all the pilots, packers and people who I never found out their names, but know their faces! Can't wait to see you all again.

Only went once when Ocana's plane was bust (again). Very impressed. They guy gave me a full chat about the place and landing etc. Nothing was rushed. Then he checked my brand new rig and papers etc. The closing loop was too long and the stows from a previous pack job were too short. The chap adjusted the loop and re-stowed the lines. Being a new jumper he advised me about the problems, put them right and that was that. Docs in the office, gear up and up we went. A very friendly chat in the bar with 10 people I had never met before ensures I will go to Lillo for some jumping in the future, maybe even my FF1 with Louis and Rob. Big thumbs up.

For the last seven years I´ve been the videographer on the German national team and therefore I´ve been many times to many different DZs like almost all the major ones in the US and of course the bigger ones in Europe and Germany, so I got something to compare. At the moment I´m focusing more and more onto CanopyPiloting and came for that reason to Lillo - you can be sure, I´ll be back! First off: Jumpers wrote bad opinions about their facilities in this forum and while we´ve been there toilets and showers have been running, been open and clean. About three times per day I´ve been asked by different staffpersons if everything would be ok or if there´s something that could be done any better! Everybody was Very friendly, including the excellent pilots (by the way: spot always perfect, additional altitude many times). One day I wasn´t happy with my last jump ("don´t wanna end the day like that") and they fired up another load for me - in the last daylight! Accomodation was clean and for reasonable prices, same goes for food in the village. It doesn´t matter that the place is "in the middle of nowhere" cause every night jumpers ("first-timers" included) gathered at local bars having a good time. Someone called the landingarea a "demo" - I´m not sure if twice the size of a soccerfield with perfect grass on it just qualifies for being a demo, I think it makes a good landing area. Inexperienced jumpers - who may find the mainlanding for whatever reason too challenging - will find many other options all over the place. The pond has been in excellent condition with the official accuracy course set up and I´d call their rigger "a very good one". Prices for coffee, softdrinks and sandwiches at the DZ where cheaper than I expected and of good quality. The only thing they didn´t take care of were the weatherconditions - they didn´t have to - those have been perfect.
UPDATE:
Now I´ve been there again, this time in early January.
Further improvements have been made: There´s now a very nice little bistro run by friendly spanish locals!
For the swoopers:
The pond is about getting even better (in preparation for the SpanishOpen/CanopyPiloting).
Weather conditions during wintertime:
Way better than expected! Perfect blue skies, almost no wind at all and comfortable temperatures in the afternoon.
I´ll be there again soon...
2ND UPDATE:
Now I´ve been there two more times...
In February we´ve experienced a bit of wind but for anything but swooping it was no problem at all to keep on jumping.
Swoopers went groundlaunching! There are excellent places just 10 miles away. One site is shaped in a way that it almost looks manmade, you can launch in ANY direction, so the direction of the wind is never a problem. Give it a try - you´ll love it!
During this stay we could see that further improvements for the bistro and bar were on their way...
Next visit took place in April. By this time the bar and bistro were almost finished, the area is very nice now!
During this visit the SpanishOpen of CanopyPiloting took place. I´ve been very impressed by the organisation of this international competition. I´ve been to four Worldchampionships, a Worldcup and an Europeanchampionship, the Malevskycup in Russia and several Nationals and what Skydive Lillo managed to bring on its way with this event was just - WOW! They had FAI-Judges on site, a dream of a plane from the Spanish Army (CASA 235, fits 60 jumpers - for 16 swoopers!) and the pond and courses have been in such a perfect condition that they even could have had there a Worldchampionship or Worldcup for CanopyPiloting... !
See you in Lillo!

Skydiving:
We only had three days available for jumping while in Lillo, but we got 13 jumps in each. Big thanks to loads of lifts and really quick packers! We finished our AFF consoles while in Lillo and found the instructors very professional and helpful.

After the consoles we got lots of input from both Staff and Fun jumpers. Everybody was easy to ask and very willing to spend some time to give advice and know-how for new tricks as well as what to watch out for. Great!

Gear Rental:
If anything I think the gear rental is a bit steep compared to places in the UK. When we where there in Nov/Dec it was €19 per jump including packing, and with 4/5 jumps a day that is a bit much. In the UK we paid £20 per day for gear rental and then you pay for packing separately.

Facilities:
The bar is very good! Good food and very friendly staff! I have been reading in older reviews that people have been complaining about toilets and things, but this is now all sorted! :)

Location:
Great place, but a bit chilly in Nov/Dec – bring thermals and gloves!

Where we stayed:
We stayed at Pension Teresa and that is cheap and good. We forgot to bring towels, so Teresa lent us some, but easier to just bring your own. You can walk from the drop zone to the hostel.

Hello everybody, to read my review for Skydive Lillo, please scroll down just a bit, it´s under the username "morris". I wrote it twice using different accounts cause it didn´t show up the first time I gave it a try...

Some dissapointing reviews in the recent past but the DZ has made great inprovements. Very friendy and helpful staff. The facilities have been updated and improved. Two excellent aircraft with good safe pilots. Good packing service. When there are large groups of people on the DZ it has a great atmosphere with good manifesting and a "can do as long as it's safe" attitude for customers. Well worth a visit for all levels of skydivers and tandems. Definitely the most reliable DZ in the area.

Excellent dz to visit, was there for a 2 weeks and jumped my butt off! Two turbine porters going to 13500feet, one of them BRAND NEW (with a great paint job)

Did a bunch of fun jumps with my buddies then opted for some coaching from there resident freefly school, Avalore Freefly. Top lads got me my FF1 in 14 jumps! Cashback!

Atmosphere is great, everyone gets together after jumping for beers and watch the videos from the day in the now open bar/restaurant.

Free LO for freefly, did a load of headup jumps after my FF1 and and some sweet atmo dives.!!

Nice grass landing area (makes a change for Spain!) and a huge 400ft swoop pond (didnt go near this as cant swim, and cant swoop for sh*t!! :)

Stayed in a great house with my friends, within walking distance from the dz, with all the mod-cons.

Nice restaurants and bars to relax in during the evening, and overall a great dz to come and jump loads...Cant wait till the Xmas Boogie!!

Cant recommend it more, love the place...although it seems some people love to hate it for some reason??? :/

Apparantly before i arrived the bar was shut and they had portaloo's, but come on guys?.. Never had to take a crap in a portaloo?

Anyway, while I was there the facilities were back up and running and couldnt have been better, toilets, showers, bar restaurant, outside area infront of the bar to relax...Jackanackanoory!

Pay it a visit you wont be dissapointed, and if your there for Xmas i'll see you there!!!

I Think the DZ has alot of potential and its got some good guys working there, who really make the place. But other than that there is very little else there.

A year or so ago this was a DZ on the up. There was great vision but little substance and Lillo DZ has suffered as a result.
They have now addresed the issues with the bar and WC area. There is also a new freefly school there.

Lillo has recieved some deserved critisism over the last few months but seems to be getting its self back on track.

Skydive Lillo managed to acquire the Restaurant/Bar and its premises (toilets, pool, barbecue) on the airfield and is now looking for a Bar Manager who will be responsible for running the place asap. This is a fulltime position who requires catering/gastronomy knowledge, good organization skills as well as Spanish language in order to deal with the suppliers and employees. Legal contract and license required. The operation hours are according to the Skydiving activities and till after sunset. The passion for skydiving is therefore mandatory. Interested? Apply to kathi@skydivelillo.com

usualy I stay away from public forums ect... but after going to Lillo I felt it was my public duty to inform other skydivers about the absoulte farce that is skydive lillo. One look at the website tells of a all singing and dancing DZ!? the reality is somewhat different!

I urge readers to look throught the recent reviews of Lillo and to look at the long lists of problems allready covered. e.g. no showers,no bar,no pool, disgusting toilets, bad attitudes, non existant DZ managment, bad kit......

This place was so unbelieveably bad that I thought I might be in a Spainsh Version of a Jerremy Beadle type caught on camera show!!!

The only thing that stinks more than their collection of pungent, overflowing, porterloos was the general attitude of the staff.

In short, this has been my first trip to Lillo and I loved it. Yes they have some problems with a bar/cafe but after overhearing conversations from staff that will be fixed very soon.

They have 2 very fast turbine porters, 1 of which is brand spanking new and takes 10 of us loons to altitude in no time at all. They have a very efficient and well run manifest/office system meaning everything from kit/docs to getting 8/9/10 jumps a day is no problem at all.

The experience and knowledge at the dz is incredible, everyone was welcoming and offered advice when I asked for it without shoving it in my face and giving off the big ego thang.

The town of Lillo itself, although kinda small is just perfect, there are plenty of bars and resteraunts around to get some grub and drink in the evenings and after the amount of jumping I did there I didnt want to be out into the wee hours of the morning. All some of the guys did in a few of the clubs that are open later.

I was a little dissapointed that there was no freefly coach, apart from one of the Spanish staff who was very busy with aff, but I was told a well known school is starting/moving there sometime this autumn. So i'll definetly be back to meet everyone again and hopefully have a crack at this sit flying lark!

In summary: a friendly, experienced, efficient and well run DZ with everything you need to either jump lots or learn more about your discipline of choice no matter what it is.

Until September 2006 I had not previously visited Lillo and in the spirit of objectiveness I should say that I had only heard good things. Good weather, great aircraft, good vibe and great mentors in the disciplines of freefly and canopy flying.

Skydivers get on with things. We work through problems and help each other out. So, when I arrived at Lillo to find that they had no swimming pool for our non jump friends and no restaurant or bar where you could get something reasonable to eat I was happy enough to work through the difficulties and make alternative arrangements. The dropzone is currently devoid of conventional toilets and chemical toilets are provided. No hand washing facilities are avaible though. Modern toilets are on the site but due to a legal difficulty it was explained to me by the DZ staff that these were off limits and that no one could use them. Though the toilets provided are pretty grim if you’re all in the same situation you just get on with it and make the best of things.

However, I became incensed when I discovered that the staff and friends of the dropzone had a magic key stored at manifest that gave them access to the closed toilet block for their personal use. I should point out that the use was deliberately kept low key by the staff so that customers would not be aware.

It is quite something for a dropzone to take your money and allow you to sit in their plane but at the same time behave in a way that indicates you’re not good enough to sit on their toilets! Kind of lets you know what level of respect the DZ operators have for their paying customers. A clear cut case of them and us and one that skydiving can do without.

Elsewhere on this forum you may read about difficulties with tickets when it comes to refunds on those you have not used. I will not go into detail here but make sure if you are buying blocks of jumps that you are absolutely clear about what will happen if you wish to return some. The dropzones procedures are not made clear by staff at the time of purchase and the dropzones computer system is unable to offer fairness and good will.

My other points relate to safety.

Everyone has different canopy skills but in my opinion the main landing area is only a little larger than what in the UK is referred to as a ‘demo.’ If you’re at the stage where you’re beginning to explore performance landings take care as there are very few outs if you get it wrong. Your options are a metal fence, a swoop pond or a hanger!

If you’re an experienced jumper then it’s your call if you get on a load that the DZ is sending up in questionable weather. However I did witness a load including students take off when a storm front was coming in. The dropzone was playing the game of averages and this time they got unstuck as the result was a student who could not descend for some 25minutes due to winds and updraft and who landed some 3-4km’s away from the DZ. He was OK in the end but this story could have been very different due to poor decisions by the DZ operators.

Finally, I thought I’d help everyone out by qualifying the contents of the DZ’s website so that you all know what is currently available. Unfortunately the DZ is still advertising facilities which have simply not been there for months and they should be honest and explain this to potential customers.


1. The drop zone has a large area with a hanger used for packing, as well as team rooms, parachute school and videos, manifest, office, skydivers shop, the rigging loft - Yes
2. Cafeteria - No
3. Barbecue -No
4. Showers and toilets – No

I won’t personally be returning to Lillo. If you’re thinking of going then wait until they have sorted out appropriate facilities and get the DZ to confirm what they actually have on site as the website is wholly inaccurate.

A group of 9 of us went to spain to jump and ended up at skydive lilo ok we thought members of the group had been there last year great place to go.
But the bar, cafe, pool, showers and toilets are all fenced off and the only facilities were 2 almost overflowing portaloos and a few vending machines that were usually out of change and low on drinks. and the shop never seemed to have change (although they did as i found out by asking 2 people the same thing one said no and the other a minute later said yes)
we were told that NO One could use the proper facilities due to some paperwork issue and politics but we later found out that the dropzone staff were still using the nice flushing toilets (key at manifest)but expecting their paying punters to use the discusting portaloos a picture is at http://www.kentaylor.net/spain/magicgallery/PICT0060.htm

The planes cannot be faulted and the packing facilities good. instructors friendly. but maybe they should get the basics sorted before investing in new aircraft.
a note on tickets if you buy a block there will be a recalculation of any refund to make you pay the higher rate on any tickets you used less than the block price which is understandable but say you buy 25 block tickets and only use 21 you will be charged the full price on all 21 they will not give you the advantage of the price of the block of 10 even though you have paid in bulk and used more than 10. its their policy but a bit unfair and on top of the other issues we had we felt a bit off especially as the manager one day agreed with one of our group but then the next day said he could not do it as it was policy.
i hope that the DZ manage to sort out their issues with regards to the land that the bar pool and toilets are on and get back to the level they were at last year as i beleive that the dz realy had something and if they get this back it could be a great place to visit relax and skydive. i would even consider going back if i was welcome after this report. but i cannot currently recomend anyone go there untill these fundimentals have been resolved.

ken

Recently came back from Lillo, where I did my 8 levels of AFF and 10 consols.

Just thought I'd cotribute my 2 cents, since there's not been a recent review of this awesome dropzone.

From the time that I started to look at a Spanish DZ to do my AFF course at, to the time I was dropped off back at the train station, I felt nothing but an amazing level of professionalism, friendliness, and genuine care and attention.

It's a fairly small DZ that is run by a bunch of fantastic people, so if you're a student or a regular jumper, you will get 100% attention. There is always someone with truly world-class experience on hand to talk you through a new exit or just a few words of encouragement.

The weather in July was beautiful, a little hot, but manageable. As a student, I was only put on a weather hold 2 or 3 times due to the midday winds, which tend to pick up when the ground is really hot.

I had a dedicated instructor- Marcus and managed to do my AFF jumps in about a day and a half.

From my perspective as an AFF student there, I cannot recommend Lillo enough to anyone thinking of doing their course.

Cannot wait to get back there!!! Blue skies, Al.

I did my AFF in July 05 and had a wicked time.You know how it is when you ain't done it before,but if you are gonna AFF then I really recommend the instructors who make you feel safe and give you the confidence to throw yourself out at 12.5 or 13 Grand if you make the Sunset Load.
July is red hot and you sweat buckets going up top but the atmosphere in the summer is top drawer.If you aren't jumping you can chill by the pool,the bars always packed and there's usually someone buying a crate of cold ones to celebrate passing AFF or doing their hundredth or something.
The towns very old school Spanish,but normally everyone hits the same restaurant 'Latino's.If you look hard enough there are a couple of clubs.I've never felt like an outsider during my 3 visits there.The experienced dudes were all new once so advice is always in the plenty,you make up your own mind which you take on board.
Septembers a nice month temperature wise with the heat being less intense than the peak of summer.
I went over in January but the weather was minging with only 2 jumpable days out of 6 but I suppose you take your chance where ever you go in the winter.
Still only done 50 jumps and renting rigs but I'm in for life and the aiming high.
Going back in June and September for more.
Go in the summer and have it large,the most loads I saw in a day was about 18 and they've got the Dornier now so slots aren't a problem.

One final note.Car Rental is really cheap at Madrid airport.I recommend you rent a car( 150 Euro's ish )because a taxi will cost you more than that one way and although you can arrange for a pick up from and to the airport that's really pricey as well.....Blue Skies,real Blue.