Dutchboy

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Dropzone Reviews posted by Dutchboy


  1. I was visiting some friends in Rochester who wanted to try a jump. We decided to give this DZ a try because they had a Super Otter for the weekend.

    I'm glad we did. Everyone was very friendly, and they were nice enough to do my friend's jump early because he had two small children who would have gone a bit crazy if we spent the entire day at the DZ.

    They gave my friend the most complete tandem brief I've ever seen. They also did a good jump of briefing me on the DZ.

    Worth a stop if you are in the area.

  2. Wow, what a blast. I was travelling to Dublin on business, so naturally I had to get some skydiving in while I was overseas. I sent an e-mail asking a few questions which was promptly answered. I even had several offers for a lift from Dublin.

    This DZ boasts the only sheep in the world that look up, because they have to. There are sheep in the landing area. Watching them scatter as you land is hilarious.

    The members of this club are extremely friendly. I think I had as much fun just hanging out at the DZ and later the local pub as I did actually skydiving.

    The club has a 206 which takes 5 jumpers to 10k in a reasonable amount of time. They also have a 182 they use mostly for students.

    The view from altitude is quite beautiful. The landing area is sizeable. They have a store, and a canteen at the DZ. Camping and showers are available. There are several bed and breakfasts nearby for IEP 15/night. They have a ton of equipment for students/members and are happy to sort you out if you didn't bring all your own gear. They also seem to be very safety oriented.

    I would suggest that no visit to Ireland is complete without a stop at IPC.

  3. Most of my friends won't jump at this DZ. I decided to give them a try myself, and to make my own decision. I was hoping that this was a good DZ since it is only 30 miles from my house, and my home DZ is 98 miles. They were advertising $19 to 14k in a skyvan so I thought it would be a good time to try them out.

    When I got there I noticed they didn't really have a sign up. The reason for this is that they are doing business under several different names. They have different phone lines for the different names and even have different prices depending on which number you call (hint call the Alabama number). So I got there, standard story fill out a waiver. Then it was cash in advance or letting them physically hold your credit card. I thought this was a bit odd, but gave them a credit card anyway.

    I made a few jumps. In each case I noticed everybody was starting to get ready at 9k. I asked one person what was up with this, we still had lots of time. They said that the skyvan climbs fast (which it really doesn't). I found out why they were getting ready so soon. We didn't exit at 14k EVER! We always got out at only 10-11k. It seems that when the pilot got to where he thought he should start jump run he turned on the light and out you went.

    So naturally you would expect to be charged less when they screw you out of 3-4k in altitude. When it came time for me to go I went to settle up at manifest. First off, there was only one person working there and she spent 22 minutes talking to some chick who just had her first tandem about buying a logbook, and some other random BS. When I finally got to settle up I found that not only had they charged me $19 for these low jumps, but actually charged me $19.95. Oh yeah, we don't tell you that credit cards are extra.

    Neither my home DZ, nor the other one I occassionally jump at charge extra, certainly not 5% when they are only paying 1-2%. The landing area is tiny, not flat, has trees on three sides and a road on the other. The trees are also the right height so you hit turbulence from the rotors coming off the treetops at about 3-5 feet AGL.

    I think just the following points from my narative above should be sufficient for anyone deciding if they want to jump here: they don't give you what they promise, they charge more than advertised, and the landing area is far from ideal.

    So all of my friends were right about this place. Now 98 miles doesn't seem so far to go to a first class HONEST DZ.

    Incidently, if you live in this area and don't want to drive to another big DZ (Thomaston, Monroe) you might consider Air Ventures in Rome. They are not a big DZ, but they are honest and friendly one.