Skydiving Family and COVID19

[skybytch 259]

Nobody's jumping right now, right?  A suggestion. While stuck on the ground, don't forget about your brothers and sisters who have no work at the moment, and little hope of getting any work in the next few months at least. 

Might be a great time to send that AAD off for service, have that little cosmetic repair done on your rig/jumpsuit/canopy, go ahead and get that repack done since it's only a month or so out.  Your rigger will appreciate the work.

Bring a bag of groceries to an instructor or three. Check in on them.  Lots of them won't ask for shit - offer it. 

We are family.  

 

[20kN 93]

There are people jumping. There are still DZs that are open.

[skybytch 259]

4 hours ago, 20kN said:

There are people jumping. There are still DZs that are open.

That's likely to come to an end soon. 

I would imagine the tandem ride market has mostly dried up at the moment.  Same with AFF.  Even if the dz is still operating, the likelihood of getting enough work to survive right now could be pretty slim. 

I'm just saying please take care of each other.  If we're gonna call skydivers family, we need to treat them that way when SHTF.  

[Westerly 61]

7 hours ago, skybytch said:

That's likely to come to an end soon. 

I would imagine the tandem ride market has mostly dried up at the moment.  Same with AFF.  Even if the dz is still operating, the likelihood of getting enough work to survive right now could be pretty slim. 

I'm just saying please take care of each other.  If we're gonna call skydivers family, we need to treat them that way when SHTF.  

Not all DZs are lame tandem factories. There are DZs out there that can remain profitable without ever sending a single tandem or AFF student. Some DZs hardly even do tandems at all. 90%+ of their clients are licensed jumpers. Those are what we call real drop zones.

[skybytch 259]

6 hours ago, Westerly said:

Not all DZs are lame tandem factories. There are DZs out there that can remain profitable without ever sending a single tandem or AFF student. Some DZs hardly even do tandems at all. 90%+ of their clients are licensed jumpers. Those are what we call real drop zones.

I grew up at a dz just like that.  Takes a dzo that is truly a skydiver to build that sort of dz - someone more into fun skydives with great people and building a community than making big money.  The sport needs more of them.   

[Millstone 4]

15 hours ago, Westerly said:

Not all DZs are lame tandem factories. There are DZs out there that can remain profitable without ever sending a single tandem or AFF student. Some DZs hardly even do tandems at all. 90%+ of their clients are licensed jumpers. Those are what we call real drop zones.

Name one?

[skybytch 259]

43 minutes ago, Millstone said:

Name one?

Madera Parachute Center.  They do some tandems - I don't think there is a dz anywhere that doesn't have at least one tandem rig - and of course they do AFF (dz family won't grow without people learning to skydive), but their focus is on the family of local jumpers that they have built and continue to build and not on how many dollars they can make off tandems.

I'd guess that most all Cessna DZ's (at least the ones not in tourist locations) are the same.

[dqpacker 7]

16 hours ago, Westerly said:

Not all DZs are lame tandem factories. There are DZs out there that can remain profitable without ever sending a single tandem or AFF student. Some DZs hardly even do tandems at all. 90%+ of their clients are licensed jumpers. Those are what we call real drop zones.

Let’s see how these “real drop zones” fare after this shutdown with no tandems to build business back. 
 

And it’s not about tandems and students being to close, it’s about everyone being too close. How are these “real dz’s” gonna send fun jumpers with the 6feet between people recommendation? 5 people on a caravan is still to close. 

[Millstone 4]

22 minutes ago, skybytch said:

Madera Parachute Center.  They do some tandems - I don't think there is a dz anywhere that doesn't have at least one tandem rig - and of course they do AFF (dz family won't grow without people learning to skydive), but their focus is on the family of local jumpers that they have built and continue to build and not on how many dollars they can make off tandems.

I'd guess that most all Cessna DZ's (at least the ones not in tourist locations) are the same.

My point is this; there are great dz’s that prioritize fun jumpers, have a large contingent of fun jumpers, and are super cool.  But there are none that are “out there that can remain profitable without ever sending a single tandem or AFF student.”

[JoeWeber 2,294]

1 hour ago, Millstone said:

My point is this; there are great dz’s that prioritize fun jumpers, have a large contingent of fun jumpers, and are super cool.  But there are none that are “out there that can remain profitable without ever sending a single tandem or AFF student.”

Unless you are happy with a 182 and Top Ramen, it's all about numbers: possible jumping day's and numbers of jumpers. I seem to recall from my aircraft leasing day's, Super Otters, Super Caravans and regular Caravans of all flavors that the operator needed to do something like 35-40,000 seats a year before it was a slots calculation. Otherwise the accounting must be a blend of high value customers and us to make the nut.

Edited March 22, 2020 by JoeWeber

[bdb2004 24]

Back to the original topic, another idea I would throw out is to buy a block of jump tickets right now.  You're going to spend the money anyway, and the extra cash flow right now may be huge for some of the smaller DZs out there.

[20kN 93]

22 hours ago, bdb2004 said:

Back to the original topic, another idea I would throw out is to buy a block of jump tickets right now.  You're going to spend the money anyway, and the extra cash flow right now may be huge for some of the smaller DZs out there.

But note that you may lose that money. This pandemic is not getting better anytime soon. It's going to be (many) months before things start improving and it's going to get a lot worse before it gets better. As a result some businesses are going to go under. That's just the nature of the beast. This is not by any stretch of the imagination a two-week thing like people are thinking.

Edited March 24, 2020 by 20kN

[bdb2004 24]

1 hour ago, 20kN said:

But note that you may lose that money. This pandemic is not getting better anytime soon. 

Unfortunately this is true.  Certainly no one should put themselves in a situation where they experience hardship while helping other businesses.  I am fortunate enough to where if I happen to lose a few hundred dollars, it would be really irritating but not life altering.