briangilbertson

We came upon this dropzone based upon an invitation from the dzo's daughter. This family had an excellent crew of packers and riggers at the Puerto Rico Freefall Festival this last year. We drove from Minnesota to Z-hills on our 3 week trip and decided that we'd go out of our way to see what this smaller dz was like before heading home. Within the month we've also stopped at Chicagoland, Atlanta Skydiving Center, Skydive The Farm, and Skydive Atlanta.

I'm so glad we decided to make this last trip, only a short distance from the beaches of Jacksonville. Today is a Tuesday..I woke up in Titusville to find out that fun-jumpers are not welcomed at Skydive Space Center Mon-Fri., I called Skydive Jacksonville to see if they'd take up fun jumpers and he told me to call Palatka. So instead I called up Packing Cathy at the Jumping Place to see if she was open to fun jumpers. I was pleasantly suprised to hear excitement on the other end of the phone and was told to hurry on over.
As I pulled up Cathy stood at her doorway and welcomed us with a wave. Inside her instructor was going over the jump plan with a student. As soon as I was done with my paperwork I was shown the aerial photo and brought outside to be given a complete debriefing of the dropzone. With absolutely no waiting we were up in the air for 2 hop'n pops.

This dropzone sits on a municipal airport free of large hangars and traffic....one huge grassy area with a paved runway. The airport had a dozen planes, at most.
The aerial view here is unmatched....ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE! Other than jumping in Puerto Rico for beach jumps this has got to be my favorite view thus far.
I've never met a dzo so excited about doing what she does.....you can tell how passionate she is about this place. After the afternoon of jumping we went out for dinner with her family and were given a tour of the cutest town of St. Marys.
If you want to take a vacation from the large dropzones full of turbines and lots of people then this is a great atmosphere for a change of pace. The town is full of B&B's and worth visiting despite the fact that it has a great dropzone.
My hat goes off to Cathy and her family for making this great new dropzone!

I showed up there this morning with the hope of sneaking on their King Air if they had tandems on their books. The owner had posted a sign on the door that said they DO NOT ALLOW FUN JUMPERS mon-fri.
I wish they would have had this on their dropzone.com listing and on their website. When I visited their site there was no mention of hours of operations.
This is the second time I've shown up and haven't been able to jump despite great weather.
Simply put the great pricing to great altitude on their dropzone.com listing is not what it's cracked up to be if they won't even let you on the plane.

Go to Z-hills or Deland for a good time!

Definitely worth the trip and we'll definitely be back. It's like being a tandem or AFF student all over again...they treat you like they'd love to have you back. I brought a friend with from Minnesota and she wants to go back there to do her AFF. Their Pac750XL gets you to altitude quick with only 6 people in it. Manifest is a pleasure to work with, their staff is ready to join for freeflying, and they have updated student gear for those still learning. The pilot's spotting was superb. If for some odd reason you land off though the town of Hickley is one big landing area.

I've noticed a big change from previous years to the present. The current staff is excellent and totally professional....this dropzone has friendly owners, Flew-ID, and a great bunch of faithful regulars. Their AFF instruction is great and they also bring in Scott Miller for his canopy course. It's worth a visit.