ljwobker

This is my regular dropzone... they're flying an otter now full-time (upgraded from the Beech99 they flew for the first year of operation). The staff is fantastic, and there's always people to jump with. The packing area is inside the hanger, gigantic, and has really thick foam mats that are much easier on your back and knees than carpet or concrete! The briefing area, manifest, and the upstairs observation deck is indoors and AIR CONDITIONED... not something to be scoffed at in the North Carolina summertime!

There's a good core of both RW and freeflyers and a busy student program. The tandem instructors are very experienced, the have probably 15,000 tandems among them, and most of the regular jumpers are coach and/or AFF rated as well so there's always someone around to teach. There are active 4-way teams who train here, as well as a couple of weekend load organizers.


The only real drawback is that the DZ is located on a public airport, so you can't have a bonfire there or park RVs overnight.

The owner is great, they've invested a ton of time, money, and energy into making this place a serious dropzone, and the manifest staff is as good as anywhere I've ever been. They have rental rigs of all shapes and sizes as well.

Honestly -- I have no idea where the people who wrote the two negative reviews went, but it wasn't this DZ.

What kind of DZ runs TWO twin turbines on a tuesday morning? This one does, and that's just about enough for me... this place is great. I show up with about 60 jumps on my resume, and they start talking about how they'll put me with a "Load Organizer" (what's this, I'm thinking?) and a "Video Guy".... so I start talking about how I really don't have the money for all that, I just want to make a couple of jumps.... then they start talking about how it's free. That's right, they put me and four other low-time jumpers with a GREAT load organizer AND a video guy, and it cost me 19 bucks. I learned a ton from both the LO and get to review the video anytime.

One of my adopted homes. As a North Carolina jumper, nothing beats heading out to California for the summer (too humid here!) or winter (too cold here!). Cheap lift prices and gear rentals keep the money-pain bearable, and the facilities are great. Lots of CRW if you're in to that, as well as the normal freefly and RW crowds. The CRW dogs make for good pictures even if you're not one of them. Super friendly people, Kathy rememers my name every time even though I'm only there about twice a year.