Justpin

Alot of peeps told me not to come here. I came here anyway. I wanted to freefly.

Home DZ no coaches for freefly.

Instructors regulars all warmed me against coming here. Geff only wants tandems. They don't want skydivers, I jumped here for 5 years never again.

I visited one sunny morning. The really hot frealy weeks in Mar a while ago now. Id gone home about 4 hours later. Parking up they seemed real busy. I go to sign up and I'm asked if I'm here to do a tandem.

No.

I'm asked to come back later as they are very busy. An hour and a half later same thing happens again.

Come back later.

I go explore the packing she 20 or so tandems from a guy I think I recognise from Strath. Alot of people in sausage suits just standing around feels unapproachable and cold.

Watching the people getting on board all just tandems and camera fliers. Alot of hotloading tandems as well.

One last time at noon. I go into the office again. I'm given a dirty annoyed get out of my face look I'm told they are very busy and to come back later.

I've been waiting hours I tell them.

I'd told curtley others have been waiting for longer more tandems arriving.

I go home.

This is my home DZ. So I am slightly biased towards this drop zone though I did not learn to skydive here nor did I qualify or do my consols here either.

It felt nice the fact that on my first day here a large number of people approached me and said hello without me approaching them first. The vibe is the best feature here, people stick around after jumping and make you feel at home. From the air the DZ is pretty easy to spot and the landing area is enormous. The DZ also is not a shouty type DZ whereby mistakes and errors are dealt with by a quiet word. I've made a few minor mistakes landing in the wrong field.

The fact that many university clubs are based here makes it even more interesting, the DZ owners are fairly young and don't come across as high and mighty as they do in some places. The resident instructors here who are very very easy going and actually have faith in you and your own decision making. Some might not like this if they prefer to be told but then its a bit like marmite tbh the fact that being told I've jumped enough to make my own decisions I felt was nice though.

They will put the PAC750 up without a full load. Other places absolutely insist on a 100% full load I suppose this is to keep us fun jumpers happy. They might break even but it keeps us coming.

It's not perfect though, kit hire is very scarce for the visiting jumper and all of the kits seem to be made for giants as the harnesses don't adjust enough for waifs. The landing zone and the fields beside the PLA have quite a few surprises. Surprises in the form of cow pats while fields adjacent to the PLA are filled with actual cows. The manifesting is very basic to say the least though. Its a whiteboard and some marker pens. There is also almost always a big audience for your skydives and canopy flight. Seeing as Cark is situated next to a giantic caravan park and actually has a caravan/campsite onsite, though camping is not free (their bunk house is though). Cark is also a bloody difficult place to get to from the motorway. It takes me about 90 minutes to get here from Oldham.

Finally the low wing loading of the PAC can be a bit off putting to some jumpers I've met. The other things I've jumped out of PC6, Dornier G92, Airvan, 206, 186, Islander, SMG, 208GC. The wing is above your head and out of sight and out of mind. With the PAC its right in front of you. But you forget about it pretty quick, the door is a touch small though I've seem some pretty big formations go out the door here.