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Para-cutie

Own their own airport

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My Club (LSPC) just paid off our mortgage last month, and was wondering how many other drop zones out there own their own airport? All the ones Ive been to have been owned by a city/county/etc..
I'm a little teapot short and stout, here is my handle and here's a note from my shrink. He says I'm getting better. Last week I thought I was a toaster oven!
-Dot Warner

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Para-cutie

My Club (LSPC) just paid off our mortgage last month, and was wondering how many other drop zones out there own their own airport? All the ones Ive been to have been owned by a city/county/etc..



Shorty would be proud! B|










~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

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Skydive DeLand runs the Airport.

The Fixed Base Operation (FBO) has been a Skydive DeLand operation for years.

Three of the members of the Airport Board are Skydivers who own related businesses.

The majority of business on the airport and close by are for Parachuting both Military and Civilian, with more moving in. I heard it all at the Perfect Spot Bar so you know it’s the truth. ;)

I keep telling you DeLand is the center of Skydiving on Planet Earth.
http://www.skydivedeland.com/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1

I Jumped with the guys who invented Skydiving.

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The majority of business on the airport and close by are for Parachuting both Military and Civilian, with more moving in. I heard it all at the Perfect Spot Bar so you know it’s the truth.



Truth is I heard that Bob is actually God. Jesus hangs out in Perris though......;)
Kevin Keenan is my hero, a double FUP, he does so much with so little

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http://journalstar.com/news/local/skydivers-celebrate-by-jumping-burning-mortgage/article_2c879ce5-6d62-5178-bbe0-d47d83b092eb.html

Quote

September 28, 2013 10:00 pm • By JOURDYN KAARRE / Lincoln Journal Star(0) Comments
Floating against a clear September sky, colorful parachutes swirled gently back to earth.

Those below wiggled into jumpsuits for their turn while others practiced formations, dirt diving, before the ground was thousands of feet below.

Brown’s Airport, off the highway in Weeping Water, is paid off. And that was reason to celebrate for the Lincoln Sport Parachute Club.

In honor of paying its last mortgage payment, the club hosted a “Burn the Mortgage” event. Dozens of first-time and experienced skydivers from around the region descended on the airport, jumped from 11 a.m. to sunset Saturday and joined in a bonfire, to physically burn the mortgage and to cook out in the evening.

With the last payment, the club became the first in Nebraska to own its airport, which is rare when it comes to skydiving clubs, said Chuck Crinklaw, Lincoln Sport Parachute Club’s secretary.

“Only way to keep it the way it was, was to buy it ourselves … and I think it worked out,” said Mike Janousek, one of the first club members when it formed in 1959.

Original members made their initial jump from Brown’s Airport in 1980 and never stopped. In 2004, when there was talk of selling the land, the club stepped up and purchased it, afraid their grassy clearing surrounded by stalks of corn would be transformed into something less desirable.

“It’s just fantastic how the sport has grown over the years,” Janousek said.

An Otter plane, which can hold 23 jumpers, flew in from Skydive Chicago for the event. The plane repeated its ascent and descent all afternoon, dumping jumpers and picking them up.

“It was unreal,” said first-time jumper Josh Mueller. “It was the sickest thing I’ve ever done.”

He and his wife Michelle found the event online and decided to go for it.

The free fall was quick, the adrenaline pumped and sometimes the stomach flopped on the way back to earth, with the zigging and zagging around. The whole trip lasts about 15 minutes from takeoff to landing.

“I’d absolutely want to do it again,” Mueller said.

Nowadays, said Mike Blacksher, president of the club, many people skydive to cross it off their bucket list.

But not everyone can, Crinklaw said. You’ve got to have a desire to do something others won’t.

And those who get hooked become a part of a tight-knit community, Blacksher said.

Inside the portable schoolhouse from Plattsmouth, where the club does its business, dusty photos hang on the wood-paneled walls.

Aging photos of mid-air formations. A black and white of the original jumpers standing before a plan. A photo of a younger Janousek holding a trophy hangs next to a nearly identical photo of her husband, Shorty, who died in 1992, holding the same trophy.

Shoes lost in flight pile up above a trophy case. Parachutes lay limp on the floor, waiting to be folded and tucked into a pack, with decades of memories surrounding them.

Cory McBeth, a club member since 1999 and coach, said the camaraderie keeps him coming back.

“(It’s) the relationship I have with fellow jumpers. Yes, the skydives are fun, but I enjoy hanging out with friends. It’s an escape from normal living.”


Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

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