I live in London, and Headcorn is actually the quickest dropzone for me to get to. In summer, this is a 5* dropzone all the way, going down to 4* for winter.
During Winter they operate a Beaver for most lifts and I just can't love the thing. I have no rational reason for not liking it, I just don't. Maybe I've been spoiled with the Turbolet at Headcorn and the Pac750XL at Hinton :)
It can get a little busy and the manifest seems to work on a fairness basis rather than first person to put their name on the board gets on the next lift. I think this is partly because the board is split into multiple columns for different things, but I could be talking rubbish on this one. This bothered me at first but after a few visits and watching people, it actually seems to be a good way to run things. Everyone gets on a fair amount of lifts and seems happy with their count at the end of the day.
Most of the staff are really great, and this is one of the things that I love about the place. They've dealt with me as an individual jumper, not as an A license jumper with X jumps. They do have a few hard and fast rules (like radio on all jumps below 50, and you must have an AAD if you're on an A license), but other than that they don't seem to have any arbitrary rules that don't make sense, unlike other places I've been to - they talk to me, work with me, evaluate where I am and seem to be interested in helping me progress. For some things, this means doing things earlier than at other dropzones, and for other things it means doing them later. But they're open and communicative all the way through as to what and why, and I get a lot out of that.
The pricing initially looks very expensive for a student / someone renting gear. However, when you look at the credit system, the costs are actually there to incentivise you to learn to pack and pack your own gear. They run packing courses fairly regularly on bad weather days, so it's not like you have to wait forever to learn either. The other costs that look expensive go down again when you move from your A to your B license. Again, this is to try and convince you to keep working on progressing I think (although the full face helmet privilege is more of an incentive for a blind guy like me :))
The crowd there can be a little standoffish, but I've always had positive experiences when I initiate conversation. I'm there to jump out of an airplane, talking to strangers isn't going to kill me ;) I've met some very cool people there and they've taught me almost as much as the staff.
Their training (packing, CH2, JM1, etc.) is really good. They also offer rigging services, and I've been happy with all the work they've done on my kit. While your gear is in for rigging, they have the best rental gear that I've used in the UK and out of everywhere I've jumped in the world so far, their gear is second only to Lodi.
In closing (yeah, yeah, finally, I know), come to Headcorn and have a blast. Arrive with an open mind and be prepared to chat to random people for no good reason and you'll probably have a great time.
Skydive Headcorn
in United Kingdom
During Winter they operate a Beaver for most lifts and I just can't love the thing. I have no rational reason for not liking it, I just don't. Maybe I've been spoiled with the Turbolet at Headcorn and the Pac750XL at Hinton :)
It can get a little busy and the manifest seems to work on a fairness basis rather than first person to put their name on the board gets on the next lift. I think this is partly because the board is split into multiple columns for different things, but I could be talking rubbish on this one. This bothered me at first but after a few visits and watching people, it actually seems to be a good way to run things. Everyone gets on a fair amount of lifts and seems happy with their count at the end of the day.
Most of the staff are really great, and this is one of the things that I love about the place. They've dealt with me as an individual jumper, not as an A license jumper with X jumps. They do have a few hard and fast rules (like radio on all jumps below 50, and you must have an AAD if you're on an A license), but other than that they don't seem to have any arbitrary rules that don't make sense, unlike other places I've been to - they talk to me, work with me, evaluate where I am and seem to be interested in helping me progress. For some things, this means doing things earlier than at other dropzones, and for other things it means doing them later. But they're open and communicative all the way through as to what and why, and I get a lot out of that.
The pricing initially looks very expensive for a student / someone renting gear. However, when you look at the credit system, the costs are actually there to incentivise you to learn to pack and pack your own gear. They run packing courses fairly regularly on bad weather days, so it's not like you have to wait forever to learn either. The other costs that look expensive go down again when you move from your A to your B license. Again, this is to try and convince you to keep working on progressing I think (although the full face helmet privilege is more of an incentive for a blind guy like me :))
The crowd there can be a little standoffish, but I've always had positive experiences when I initiate conversation. I'm there to jump out of an airplane, talking to strangers isn't going to kill me ;) I've met some very cool people there and they've taught me almost as much as the staff.
Their training (packing, CH2, JM1, etc.) is really good. They also offer rigging services, and I've been happy with all the work they've done on my kit. While your gear is in for rigging, they have the best rental gear that I've used in the UK and out of everywhere I've jumped in the world so far, their gear is second only to Lodi.
In closing (yeah, yeah, finally, I know), come to Headcorn and have a blast. Arrive with an open mind and be prepared to chat to random people for no good reason and you'll probably have a great time.