Skydive S.O.S.

[jose9878 0]

Bosnia Boogie 2006....I'm game!

Roundtrip flights to Sarajevo from the US;

Seattle, San Francisco or LA - $828 - $908
Chicago - $695
Dallas - $738
New York - $590

Would make for a memorable vacation & possibly help out these jumpers. Jumps out of an MI-8 helicopter, Utva-66 and Utva-75 (I haven't logged those yet), bring in a twin otter, skyvan or porter & I think it's a boogie!

[woodpecker 0]

London to Sarajevo... 201.00 pounds. Just under $400.00 US.

--I would love to log an MI-8 Helo--

Count me in!

SONIC WOODY #146

There is a fine line between cockiness and confidence -- which side of the line are you on?

[neles 0]

Howdy people :) Good to see you around. This is another update, though, not financial, but it's ok. This campaign generated quite a lot as it is this far.

Anyhow, unfortunately, I didn't get the opportunity to elaborate my plan on organizing boogie down here with the club and the chief, for chiefs niece (or a relative of some sort, I'm not certain about the relation) had an accident - it's a little 6 year old girl (she was also on the event last week) - she was playing with a friend and got hit in an eye with some stick or a metal bar, not sure, but she (I certainly hope not) can lose an eye. Doctors at first said there is no hope for it, but yesterday they said there is some remote chance to repair the damage at least to some extent. I certainly hope they do, for the kid is a real joy rider, even in the hospital with all the people worried she's being cool and keeping hopes up.

Because of that I only had a brief moment to discuss the idea of a boogie, and the initiative certainly exist, as well as enthusiasm, so I was kinda "put in charge" of gathering intel and making some drafts. I hope that these days I will have a chance to lay out the idea and see with all relevant parties what is it to do. I heard that guys from Serbia tried to organize a boogie type of event last year, but weather totaly scrwd that up, so that not even plane could take off.

Hopefuly, what I have in mind, will do better. Now, as I have said million times before - you are all welcome down here, whether or not boogie actualy takes place, but I will keep you posted on any progress I make.

As for ticket prices, I thought that the round trip from USA would be far more expensive - not that it is cheap, but certainly is cheaper than I had in mind. City of Sarajevo is on some 150 kilometers from Banja Luka, but I would see to it that buses are chartered to pick people up. Ofcourse, it's all on a long run, but I must think upfront. As for UK, I have a friend in Telford, Shropshire, Birmingham area, that was here 5-6 times this and last year, and he was telling me about even cheaper ways to get down here by plane, using third party airlines, and this and that. If I'm correct he was telling me about some people that came down here for like 40 pounds or so. I will get into it and let you know.

I thought to put a poll, to see whether would people be interested in this event, and if not - why. So if you give me some hints on why you wouldn't jump down here, I would really appreciate it. Either too far, or too expensive flights to here, or perhaps someone would feel insecure...? Whatever crossed your mind, please let me know.

In the mean time, keep up the good work - will keep you posted.

Sincerely,

Nenad

[neles 0]

Unfortunately, nothing yet to report - work, work, and nothing but the work.

Can't get five minutes with these people, as they are all over the local papers atm.

However, I intend to put up that poll today, and hope to get some info from it.

See you there.

Sincerely,

Nenad.

[neles 0]

Hello people! I'm slow, I know, it took awhile to gather some prominent people and get them to talk.

Now, I will try to save your time to the maximum, and I will tell you what we agreed on.

- (Bosnia) Banja Luka Boogie 2006 is on (potentialy, ofcourse, depending on interest - and it's my job to provide it) - we had in mind about 7-10 days, sometimes in end of spring - begining of summer (may-june).

Features we can provide for our visitors:

- DZ (no kidding?)
- 2, maybe 3 MI-8 military helicopters for 13k feet jumps
- 1 or 2 Utva-66 airplanes for 13-14 feet jumps
- 1 Utva-75 plane for sightseeing, if someone is interested :)
- 1 (maybe more) rented plane (not sure which one, maybe AN-2, but it's skydive oriented, flown from a friend in Slovenia) for I guess 14-15k feet jumps
- military grade, unlimited capacity accomodation (not height of the luxury, but it's comfy and useful, and it's unlimited, since we have complete empty millitary base at our disposal - that means it's either ridicilously cheap, (2-3 bucks a day) unless we get it for free - which I hope we will)
- two large artificial lakes in the immediate vicinity of the DZ, for speed freaks
- we have few chutes and some sad equipment to rent if someone gets in the need
- bunch of local food, weird suprises, drinks, and God knows what else
- I guess unlimited amounts of of local beer in tanker trucks (not kidding here)
- lots of really good time
- absolute safety
- and various things I probably forgot to mention.

Ok, now some additional info:

- Bosnia is in Southern Europe in a region called Balkans, while city Banja Luka is in the north-central part of Bosnia
- for those who heard about civil war we had here - it was 10 years ago, so you shouldn't be worried about your personal safety whatsoever
- this country isn't really cheap, but considering our definite dislay of hospitality to any and all of our guests, we will try to cut down all possible expenditures to minimum
- 5 miles from the DZ, is fully-equiped international comercial airport Banja Luka (Mahovljani) so it's great for charters
- we can organize raftings on the lively river Vrbas if there is interest in it, ofcourse, as well as I guess other activities for the moderate adventurer
- for those who would be ariving to Sarajevo International airport, we would provide either air or bus transport to Banja Luka
- we also have a solid offer of hotels, motels and other accomodation methods, if you are not satisfied with our military grade accomodation
- and again, a lot of other important things I probably forgot to mention.

Now, the "touchy" part, prices

First off - one thing is imperative for you to understand - we do not, and would not, throw this boogie for profit. At all. Positive zero is all we ask, because the whole point behind it is to get as much people as possible, to make them feel real good, have a great time, and go back home with good oppinion on us, the club, the sky, the city and the country.

Thus, we were discussing something in the lines with this - since we cannot afford to organize it all, rent planes, buy fuel, and whatever else is necessary - only to be duped and noone shows up, we figured something like this:

Considering most people from abroad have to undertake a solid travel, and plane/gas prices or not really at it's off-peak, we wish to provide minimum fees - and these fees are NOT intended for profit, but are based PURELY and ONLY to cover the expenses! Nothing more! We do not wish to profit on you, but to provide you many good, high jumps and a good time. We only need to cover fuel, permits, planes and pilots and such.

So:

Entrance fee would be between USD$100-200, depending on how many people would apply. The more - the merrier - and cheaper. This price INCLUDES jumps at the also variable price of about USD$30 - we discussed the potential, as I have said, to reduce the price of jump to value of $20 or even lower, depending on the number of people attending, and potential sponsors. I believe accomodation can be provided for free (or included in the entrance fee at least). As I said we WILL do ANYTHING to reduce the prices to the minimum. There will be load of free food, bbq, drinks - and basicaly, all necesities for hygiene and consumation are really cheap for most standards.

So, now it's your turn to tell me - is all this worth it? Do we have enough interesting features to provide to our visitors? would people be comfortable with pricing?

As I have said, this idea depends on YOU people, on YOUR interest. Please advise me what to do, any suggestions, criticism, comment are most welcome. Please let me know what do you think, before I put some poll on to see what the rest of the crew thinks.

Thank you boys and girls. Looking forward to hear from you.

Sincerely,

Nenad (if you forgot about me).


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