altichick

I had a few days to spare in Czech Republic and decided at the last minute to take a bus up to the Pink Skyvan operation in Klatovy. I only stayed one night and as weather was bad the second day I only made a few jumps but I was impressed by both the people and the facilities at this DZ; nice pool, restaurant and bar, bunkhouses, free camping and good bathrooms!

The majority of people spoke German as their first language, but even if not everyone understood me they were all very friendly! Within an hour of arriving I was on an organised RW jump.

Prague is just a few hours away and this was a nice way to break from sightseeing and jump the Pink skyvan - what a funky plane!

I spent 3 weeks here this summer and on the whole enjoyed it... 300 rubles a jump (about $10) and about a third of those were from an MI8 helicopter which was a nice novelty! They also have 2 AN28's running so there is rarely much of a wait between manifesting and getting in the air. The busiest day saw 60 loads taking off! The landing area is big and there were coaches for both FF and RW available whilst I was there.

There are downsides... some of the non-jumping facilities are a bit basic but they are working very hard to improve them. When I left in July the bathrooms were close to being finished - another week and I would have been able to have a hot shower! (I needed one after 3 weeks camping!)

There is a bar/ food hall which is great if you want to save your money for jumping - but for 'western' style food or if you you want something a bit more interesting you have to head into the nearby town.

Getting to the DZ from Moscow is cheap on the bus but a bit daunting - I was lucky to find a Russian jumper in Moscow who helped me out with finding the right bus. The DZ can arrange collection from Mosocow which if there is several of you is probably worth the extra cash.

The weather was mostly good, only one day in 3 weeks where there was no jumping at all and a few other days where wind / clouds were a bit iffy (for me) but jumping was still possible.

There are lots of non-russian jumpers there, either for fun jumping or training and the DZ had a pleasant international feel. During the week there were more FF than RW jumpers but at weekends there was excellent RW organising, 20+ ways and even a formation load using an AN28 and the MI8.

Several of the manifest staff and fun jumpers speak excellent english and many of the international jumpers also speak english as a second language. I had to rely on various Russian jumpers to explain the debriefs for the RW loads to me but no one seemed to mind helping me. For getting there, getting around town and so on some basic Russian would have been really useful but I managed to get by with a phrase book and lots of pointing!

A great DZ for training or just getting lots of jumps in. When jumping's over if you want to party, beer and vodka are cheap and plentiful and skydivers can make a party happen alomst anywhere!

What a great DZ!! I just got back from a weekend there and had a great time. I'm from the UK and didn't know anyone there (except from dropzone.com) but everyone was really friendly and made me feel really welcome. I didn't get to jump the caravan as it stayed cloudy for most of the time but did a couple of cessna lifts. Thankls guys! :-)