Skydive Hibaldstow

After completing my AFF abroad in a short period of time there was still much to learn about skydiving.

Hibaldstow has been the springboard to me becoming a competent skydiver. No matter what the weather I'm always learning at the DZ. The staff are friendly, thorough and always on hand to offer advice.

The dropzone caters for every level of skydiver and no matter which discipline you choose, there will always be someone around to help you progress to the next stage. They run regular courses and provide comprehensive briefs for progression in everything from packing to canopy handling.

There are regular events both daytime organising and evening social events and the facilities at Hibaldstow are extremely nice: It has a lively and exciting clubhouse, large enclosed packing sheds, multi-door mockup and bunkhouses (with both private and shared accommodation available) and most importantly hot showers!

Whenever the DZ is open there is a wide range of good and reasonably priced food available.

Safety really is second to none, there is never any doubt about what is expected of you and everybody follows a clear set of rules which means you can have confidence when jumping.

I personally love Hibaldstow, The staff and fun jumpers are fantastic people and it has very quickly become a second home to me :)

In the somewhat unusual position of being a tandem jumper who is not allowed under BPA rules to jump solo because of my age, I have always found Hibaldstow to be a friendly, welcoming dropzone. The staff go out of their way to ensure a good skydiving experience, whether you're doing your one and only Charity jump, doing the AFF or static line courses, or like me, you've got the bug and can't wait to get back up in the sky. Everyone is very professional (I have jumped in other places), there is great teamwork and safety is second to none. If the weather conditions are not right, or there is not enough wind, you don't jump. Some find that hard to deal with, but safety is paramount, both for the passenger and the tandem instructor, so bear that in mind if you are doing your first tandem jump from here. Generally if there is a weather delay jumpers are kept informed of conditions and given a choice on whether to go and come back later, or stay. I usually do the latter and have only not been able to jump on a couple of occasions. For some people better management of expectations would be good, particularly if you're returning for the fourth or fifth time to do your jump. I'm unsure if you get pushed to the top of the list when conditions do improve, but the perception is that others might be given priority, particularly regular skydivers.
Having done my last jump when the dropzone was preparing for the Nationals, the place was buzzing, some might say a little too noisy. There is great camaraderie, and I have always found the experienced skydivers to be just as interested and friendly towards those of us doing tandem jumps. The new facilities are excellent, much better than the previous club house. There is a great choice of food at reasonable prices - the sausage baps and jacket potatoes are particularly good. If you're bringing friends and family along to watch you jump, you need some form of distraction for little ones - the place is geared up for jumping so there is no play area, although maybe there could be? Something for future consideration, perhaps?
Lifts are generally mixed, with both tandems and fun, formation or student jumpers together. I have sometimes been the only tandem student in a lift, but never felt the odd one out because everyone has been so friendly, and the banter is always great!

I've jumped at Skydive Hibaldstow for 10 years now and have seen a spectacular transformation in the last 2 years.

There is a second to none clubhouse with very good food, and an excellent shower block which had been lacking up until now.

It has always had brilliant aircraft and excellent jumping progression. 15k in 9 minutes is very hard to beat, especially with a reasonable sized door!

Overall well worth a visit!

It is one of the few dropzones in the UK offering 15,000ft with its Dorniers and SMG. It takes about 15 minutes to get to 15,000ft. No wonder they hold the 4 way and 8 way nationals pretty much every year. Usually have 5 loads per cycle and offers teams the chance to do back to back loads providing they land in the experienced landing area (500 jump limit and CCI approval).

Plenty of coaching available. Stu is the resident FS coach/load organiser and several other FS coaches there to cover FS coaching every weekend. Several FF coaches there to cover almost every weekend offering coaching and organised groups. Wingsuiting has started to appear more frequently too with coaching available on certain weekends.

Plenty of events running at the DZ in all disciplines. Many organised by Stu for the flat fliers with a range of events to cover pre FS1 up to the more advanced fliers. Freefly events most weekends. Canopy courses run a few times a year and Hib often hosts a CF roadshow.

Packers available at weekends. Manifesting is easy with printed ticket system.

Overall it is a great DZ with very friendly and helpful staff. I travel quite a distance to get there but I'm very happy to call it my home DZ

After returning to skydiving after 6 years I was trying to find a dz that jumped more than just the weekends, as I only managed to get two jumps at my local dz. I contacted a few dz about mid week jumping and about getting back into skydiving properly, and only Hib got back to me with a serious answer. I spent time with the CCI going over drills vigorously, but this safety attitude, I do not mind one bit. Friday was great for jumping especially for FS jumps as you just pay for the other guy’s slot (with a copy of the video - bonus!). Over the weekend, it got pretty busy but I still managed to jump. People still came up and spoke to me when I was on my own whether it was staff that I had already met previously or other jumpers I did not know. The atmosphere is pretty buzzing, especially in the evening of the 31st October; everyone made a real effort to dress up! I am definitely going back!

I drive past 2 DZs, and it takes me three hours to drive here and costs me a packet in petrol to come to Hibaldstow. But this is worth it though as it is a very nice place to jump.

I could tell it had a great vibe due to the way that it only took a few minutes for somebody to approach me totally out of the blue to talk to me. Smaller places when I didn't know better it would take weeks for anybody to acknowledge your existence other than the JM.

The good points:

Full rigging facilities and a full time rigger.

Fast aircraft, V fast all turbine wing of aircraft (5 of them).

They will stick a load up without it being full. Some other DZs will not put their plane up without it being 100% full. This had led to extremely long waits or cajoling of people who don't want to jump to jump. IIRC this is 5 on the SMGs, and 9 on the G92s. I've even seen loads of 4 on the SMG when there is a tandem.

Landing area is quite big, BUT its an odd triangle shape.

It is a skydive dropzone by skydivers for skydivers primarily. Granted there are some tandems but it is not absolutely overwhelming. I have only ever seen 4 tandem instructors tops working the DZ. Which means 8 slots out of a 16 slot aircraft (of which they have three). So this is absolutely NOT a tandem mill!.

15K all the time.

Lots of fun events, scrambles FS and FF (even on creepers if the weather is bad). Theme nights in the bar.

Great easy going vibe..... this I think is in part that the staff and CCI are comparatively young and are not ex-military like at many DZs. The ex military doesn't carry over into civilian life very well. Shouting and screaming obsenities at customers is not a good way to retain them. I've never seen this happen at Hib.

Three free to use video debrief TVs.

The bad points:

The rigger although is there full time tends not to smile and seems grumpy all the time.

There are no 100% dedicated coaches each time I've been there even though it isn't like other places paying for slots. They are also camera fliers and quite frequently I've not been able to get a coach, its annoying sometimes but it is understandable as it makes them more money.

They can be so laid back it is irritatingly annoying. I'm a rack it and pack those jumps in like no tomorrow. And they'll rotate lifts fairly slowly even though there are people eager to jump.

I don't like the way you have to take a minibus to the aircraft and also have t otake one back when you land.

For the size of the DZ there isn't enough kit to hire. This no longer bothers me much though.

The canteen is not the greatest.

In summer there are oh so many wasps due to the location.

All in all each time I drive away from Hib I feel great even if I didn't manage any jumping A feeling not replicated at other DZs.

Hi all

I recently did my aff level 1 to 7 at Hibaldstow and without doubt was the best experience off my life, Cant wait to return to finish my cons jumps and level 8, I stayed over for the week and shared the bunkhouse with some great guys and girls, everyone was really friendly. If your Going to do your AFF this IS the place to do it.... On a bad weather day Mike one of the instructors took us to the Airkix in Manchester for 12 mins of coaching in the wind tunnel, where else would you get that type of service from a DZ.. A big thanks to all the guys at Hibaldstow for a great week and look forward to returning soon..

Chris

Cliquey, elitist unfriendly to outsiders newbies.

I visited Hib sometime ago to use the good unseasonably good weather we were having. I was wary after hearing some awful stories of Hib from other experienced skydivers. Truly awful stories I generally didn't believe them until I saw it for myself. Everybody from students to D certs to CCIs had bad things to say about Hib.

So so spotting,

Tiny bad landing area,

Bad attitudes

Cliquey skygods

The sky gods being particularly insidious in pointing our their superiority and belittling others.

There are horror stories of people asked to do 20-30 consol jumps or taking 60 jumps to complete their AFF courses.....the reason suspected was £££ I thought this is impossible how can this be? I mean its a massive DZ it should be good.

I wanted to see for myself if this reputation was justified or not.

It really didn't make any sense tbh as on paper it should be a very good DZ, a dornier jump ship. A boat load of instructors for formation and free fly work. Everything you'd want....

Unfortunately it wasn't so...

Firstly there stinks of an air of elitism, not a little but the place drips with elitism and cliquey tendencies. I visited with two friends who were A and B certs, I'm a new C cert.

Although I was treated ok, my friends were not, the CCI took every opportunity to belittle my friends knock their experience and FF FS coaches they trained under. They will gladly point this out not in a constructive manner but in a overt and barbed manner. Which smacked of a look how good I am, you're nothing.

This started the day off pretty badly as it put them in a bad mood. And they waited for several hours for their check out jumps. Before finally being cleared to jump around the end of the day. Which was pointless we might as well have jumped from our home DZ instead.

The cliquey nature of the DZ meant my friends spoke to almost nobody at the DZ as the skygods all kept to themselves and looked down their noses at us. I've never experienced this anywhere else other than Nethers that is understandable as they are split between civvies and military. Extreme amounts of Hubris coupled with the way that we were only put on lifts when all the skygods had been manifested and they had a spare slot meant none of us got to jump together. They were concerned about putting all the tandems up without regard to other people.

When we did jump twice the spotting wasn't great, and being one of the last out required a lot of riser work to get anywhere near the landing area.

About the landing area, the landing area is a small triangle strip of land in a vague triangle shape with a cross and an arrow, you need to be bussed back from this area.

The landing area is pretty small and gets filled with traffic because it is so small and the drop loads are big. This IMO is dangerous. Oddly the pros as they call themselves have a much bigger landing area considerably bigger than the beginners field as they put it.

The night life is a bit better as they happen to have many events on, however the beer is overpriced and comes right from supermarket multipack cans. Again people stuck around in their small groups without really approaching anybody else. Any attempt to talk to others was generally shunned.

Deeply Disappointed, I think I'll stay at Langar thank you very much, even if Dave Hickling has a horrible temper. Even though at Hib Dave is considered an old man stuck in the past thank you very much.

I did a tandem jump at Hibaldstow in May 2010 and then immediately worked my way through AFF. Since then I've been progressively trying to get less crap at FS / RW stuff...

I find the instructors and staff to be approachable and friendly. It's particularly good for walk up FS load organising, I can be pretty sure that I can turn up unannounced on a weekend and there will be some cool formation organising going on that I can join in.

They are very keen to get you in the air, so even on mostly poor weather days, you can be sure that if there are any gaps in the weather that are safely jumpable, there will be a lift going up.

The facilities are good, with a large packing shed, covered dirt dive area, and a warm bunkhouse (or free camping). Reasonable food in the Cafe, and a great bar.

If I had to pick a con, The main landing area could be wider, it's a lot longer in one direction than another, so in certain wind conditions, you can have a narrow-ish strip of grass to try to land on, with fields of crops / muddy ploughed fields at either side if you under/over shoot. It's a good incentive to practice a decent landing pattern though!

I learnt to skydive by completing an AFF course at Hibaldstow and have continued to jump there ever since. It is a great dropzone with awesome facillities including: fast planes, high altitudes and most importantly a great bar. The staff and instructors there are always happy to help and highly experienced. I am glad to call it my home DZ!

What a fantastic dropzone. I learned to skydive here more than a few years ago and one of the things I like the most is the sense of community. I have spent many a weekend skydiving at the dropzone from their turbine aircraft.

The combination of efficient manifest and back to back loads makes Skydive Hibaldstow my favourite UK place to jump.

As host to the British Nationals for several years (and more to come!), with high altitude, fast planes (dorniers and SMG92) and a super efficient manifest, Hib has prided itself on attracting some of the top jumpers in the UK to the DZ.
Now I am biased admittedly, i started at Hib 9yrs ago and I am proud to have it as my home dz (despite there being 2 much closer to my home, it is alway worth the trip). I have travelled and jumped all over the world though, and visited many dropzones in the UK too and I still think Hib's ability to get loads in the air is second to none.
With regular events targetting safety, progression, 4 way, big ways, freefly and VFS there is something for everyone no matter what level you are at or what aspect of the sport you wish to partake in. The staff and instructors are friendly and experienced and the social side is catered for too, with a games room and many a party night had in the bar on site. Free camping and showers and a bunk house just add to the convenience, as well as a canteen that will often serve well into the evening if there is an event on.
This year they have also introduced 4 skysaver weeks when jump tickets are just £16 to 15k! What more could you ask for?
:-)

Where do I start with this place?!?! It is simply fantastic, the dornier and finnist are two beautiful planes getting to 15k every lift in 15mins!
The people are all friendly and coaches are at hand for anyone wanting FS/FF coaching.I got my FS1 done there in 2 weekends!
You can get on a load as fast as you can pack.
There are packers dedicated to the DZ and that is all they do, no waiting to get a rig packed! The kit hire is second to none ranging from 280's to 135's.
The bar will stay open as long as you keep drinking!
Bunk house superb/free showers/large camping area/cafeteria/games area........i could go on and on, just come and see for yourself. By far the best DZ in the UK.

Please bear in mind that I am a RAPs student, with only 20 jumps and have never jumped elsewhere, so this is written entirely form an inexperienced students point of view.

I have found this to be a really friendly and encouraging place to jump and train at, all the instructors and staff have time to chat to you and there is a nice vibe about the place with pretty much everyone very friendly.

The planes are good on busy days and during the week when there have been no tandems and no one else wanting to jump then they have put the Cherokee (sp?) up for 3 of us.

The facilities are good, a nice bunkhouse with heating and TVs and there are warm showers. There is free wireless Internet in the bar area. The café does adequate food, sandwiches, baked potato as well as the always-welcome bacon sarnies and full fry ups.

I can’t comment on the services as I don’t know enough about what is on offer and quality to make any kind of judgment.

It very easy to get to off the motorway.

The only point that could be perceived as bad for some people is that they are very strict on refresh dates for students, if you are over 2 month without a refresh and it is quite expensive. But this hasn’t affected me, you can’t keep me away!
The weather is not great either, – but where in the UK is!?

All in all, I really enjoy jumping here and found this a very welcoming place to get an introduction into the sport.

I am an American traveling around Europe trying different dropzones. I have never ran into as many problem as I did here. As I like trying different types of rigs, I like to rent the local rigs. I asked them for there 190 Spectre, they tell me its in a black container somewhere around the dropzone. They wouldn't even help me find it. After bugging them some more, they were able to find it. I was able to get in the air quick. When I got down, I ask them where to put the pack to haved the re-pack it (they do not let others pack their rigs). I informed the packer where I placed it and he bit my head off and told me he is really busy and he will get it when he gets to it. Two in a half hours later, I go and see if it is packed. Still sitting in the same spot. They then told me to sit by the parachute and ask him when he goes to grab the next one. Amazingly he ignores me and grabs a parachute from someone that just walked in from a jump. After 4 hours of waiting. I went into the off and complained for about 20min got my 60 bucks back. Also they don't like students that are not from their dropzone.

This is definatly the cheapest DZ in the UK for everyone. If your team trains there enough your jumps can go down to as little as £14/jump from 15000 every time.

Very well organised and never any waiting time. CCI and instructors always willing to talk to you, no matter what level you're at. The 15000 makes it great for any students there, plenty of practice time in the air. They are welcoming of students from any DZ that have done at least 1 jump previously, with with BOC or ROL deployment.

Excellent lift capacity with the 10 place Finnist running during the week with a 15 place dornier if it gets busy enough, with both running at weekends. The minimum load is 4, which makes for some speedy and roomy climbs to 15000 :)

The only problem I have heard of is during the week, phone up in advance to make sure others are going to be there, or turn up with 4 people and pre warn them. 2 of my friends went here once and there was no pilot.

I've jumped at Hinton, Netheravon, St Andys, Chatteris, Elsinore, Empuria, Royan, Cape Town and Hib is by far the best DZ I've jumped in the UK. It rivals Empuria and Elsinore for professionalism and dedication, if I ran a DZ it would be like this. I wish all DZ owners in the UK would go to Hib for the weekend and then make the appropriate changes to their DZ.

From the indoor cafe, the bunkhouse, the free showers, the covered creeping area, the plentiful supply of creepers, the dedicated packing hangar, the day room for kit and video, THE 10 MINS TO 15000 FEET EVERY TIME, the local friendly farmer, the 2 buses to get you out to the plane and back again from the landing area, the CCI offering to "crank it up a bit if the lifts are going too slow for you?", from getting 5 lifts in a day for the first time in the UK and to have 6 1/2 minutes of freefall from those 5 lifts, separate car parks for experienced and spectators/tandems so that you never have to lug your kit that far, the bar that never shuts, (a little pricey but they don't mind you taking your own beer in there), 40p for a game of pool, skydiving vids playing constantly on the tv, tvs in the packing hangar, tvs in each room in the bunkhouse, the same music playing everywhere linked into the tannoy so you can hear when manifest opens for the first lift of the day. Wow. And I could go on...

I now commute from London to Hib to jump.

To all those people who have rated other UK DZ's 5stars, you need to experience a big DZ in a warm climate to appreciate how close Hib is to them and how far away everyone else in the UK is from 5 stars.

Holy shit, The Uk has got a Dz that knows what their doing!

After doing the military DZ thing for a while I was bcoming a little pissed off at the whole UK skydiving scene.

A mate of mine invited me up to hib and I was very impressed at what I found.

I am now split between cerny and Hib. Hib has the edge but is a bit out of my way.

The best place to jump in the uk!!

Hibs is about to become my local DZ, although it's not the closest.

Wicked place, enjoyed every minute.

Written 2002 - Hib has a wicked atmosphere, you get to know people real quickly and have some wicked nights in the bar. There's a good mix of experience from teams to students. Lift turnarounds are good and you get to go from 15,000!

Written 2004 - its gotten better & better! new facilities,one of the only UK DZs with somewhere nice to sleep, 3 Dorniers & an SMG ,open 6 days.And now as well as there being RW teams, students & random jumpers, freeflying has taken off in a big way. And still 16.50 to 15k. there's a great atmosphere that makes you want to stay the weekend.

It is a DZ with the attitude of Sebastian (Florida) minus the weather. You cant beat the cosy bar with great music & videos that never seems to call last orders no matter what time it is in the morning. And hey....15K every jump with tickets at £16.50 - just cant go wrong!
Love the place.

Solid crew, really good bunkhouse, wicked aircraft... Totally all round best skydiving experience in the UK. These guys rock!