I went to spaceland for my AFF and have been an A-license jumper there for a while now and about to move onto my B-license. They had excellent instructors through the whole program and definitely made the experience fun. I would go once every couple weeks and do 3-6 jumps a day. They are all very safety conscious and really stressed doing gear checks, pin checks, and knowing what do on malfunctions. On the weekend they were very busy so sometimes the instructors had to switch between multiple students or go on a tandem jump which slowed things down but they were just too busy. Their student rigs are all javelin containers with Sabre2 up to 230 sq ft and Navigators up to 280 or 300 sq ft with Cypres 2 AAD. They let the students use the cheap goggles and helmets, Alti-track or Viso 2 altimeter, and they have a rack of Bev Suits to grab your size. I'd recommend buying the basics (helmet, goggles, altimeter) when you start the program. After you figure out what kind of jumping you like get a jumpsuit (freefly or relative work). Once I got my license I continued to rent while shopping for used gear which I regret. They reserve their rental gear for students, so if I went on a weekend and they had tons of students I had to wait till they were gone to use one of their rigs. If I could do it again I would have purchased a rig sooner to avoid the waiting game. And when they're swamped like that it takes a while for the packers to get to your chute. Nothing against them, they just don't have enough packers for the amount of jumpers that they move. During the week if the weather's good they'll fly 1 plane a day and on a good day have about 10 loads. On the weekend during good weather they'll be flying atleast 2 planes, sometimes 3, and I couldn't tell you how many loads. Probably 50+. They fly a supervan, twin otter, and sometimes a skyvan. They also have a cessna that they sometimes use to look for chopped chutes. The facility is very nice and well maintained. There are two couch areas to chill. The packing room is large, carpeted, and air conditioned. There are several TVs all over the place with GoPro connections and lockers to store your gear. There's a deli upstairs and a viewing area out back on the patio with bleachers and tables. The experienced jumpers (C-license and up) can land on groomed grass right in front of the DZ. Newer jumpers land just off to the side and hike it in on a mowed pathway. There's also a swoop pond if you're feeling frisky. There's a board that they update with the winds at altitude and there are several overhead maps and a tetrahedron to guide the spotting and landing pattern. The only drag is that it's about 30 minutes away from everything, but there's no such thing as a dropzone in a popular area so it comes with the territory. They have a bunk room for people to crash in but I live in Houston so I haven't stayed there. There's showers and laundry and if you've ever stayed in a hostel then you know what it's like. There are all kinds of jumpers here. Tons of tandems and students but there's a large community of flyers that jump here religiously. Mainly belly flyers and fun jumpers but there's no shortage of freeflying and even some wingsuiters. They've started organizing more jumps which is nice to start working on team belly flying but before that it was tough to crack into the family and jump in a group. It's not uncommon to see 20 way jumps and sometimes they'll fill both planes for a 40 way jump. They also have tons of coaches for all skills and have several camps and courses for specific skills. They have camps for small-way, big-way, free-flying, and certified canopy course instructors. The pro shop here is also very helpful. Kara took the time to teach me what kind of gear to look for and what to avoid. She even helped me design and ordered my my new gear after I found out shopping for used gear is harder than it looks. Hop and pops are $14. Full altitude (14,000 feet) are $25. To rent gear per jump is another $25. If you buy 3 of the big items through their proshop you can get a day rate of $35 to rent. And if you buy a package of 100 jumps it's $2,200 instead of $2,500 if you bought them individually. It's nice jumping in Houston at 0 feet above sea level so you can get to a higher altitude and have more freefall time. I've jumped in Colorado before and at 11,000 feet we were actually at 18,000 feet density altitude and starting to feel a bit woozy on a long cessna flight. These planes get to altitude in 10-15 minutes depending on air traffic and I've never felt light headed. As far as the reviews about tandems, my only advice would be to make an appointment for early in the morning and be on time. I had a couple of prior tandems at another facility but Spaceland made me do one more tandem before beginning my AFF just to make sure I was good to go. I made the appointment the day before for 7:30 AM and I walked right on the plane. But if you walk in at noon on the weekend, you may be waiting for a while. Overall this is an excellent dropzone and I highly recommend it to everyone!
