Positives: This is my second time at LI, the first was about 3-4 years ago when they had small hangar and manifest building. Now the same hangar but it's opened up as a lounge due I suspect because they added two large tented, carpeted packing areas. Two FULL TIME Turbines, a King Air and a Caravan and they were moving pretty fast! manifest was fast and friendly, they know what they're doing.. no fumbling around.. which is good because on this particular Sat is was a tandem factory, there had to be 50 people lined up to jump. Scenery- A BEAUTIFUL DZ to jump from, Center of Long Island and on a clear day you got the Atlantic on one side, Long Island sound on the other. I'd love to do a 14K sunset cross country from there! Rigger: Spoke with Mike the rigger for awhile, nice guy.. very personable and willing to help in anyway! Cons: Way out in the sticks, if you plan on spending the day bring a cooler with your own food. They did have what looked to be a new food "cart" that looked to have a grill etc, but it was empty and not being used, again.. it looked brand new and I am guessing they recently got it but just not up and running yet (Just my guess.. could be wrong) Not many places to hide from the sun, the day I went just happened to be miserably hot and humid, I think the heat index was about 106, so even in the shade is was miserable. Jump staff was just to busy to be social, I don't think I spoke to a single instructor the entire time I was there, like I said, they were working their asses off getting tandems up. Due to this there was a lack of "Vibe". No evidence of after jumping activities, no bonfire pits etc, although the "Staff" fridge did have an assortment frosty cold beer. (None of which left the fridge while jumping which of course is a VERY GOOD THING!) Beside myself I think there were 4 other fun jumpers so it made me wonder how many would stay till after jumps are over to sit around talk skydiving and drink a few beers.. (I couldn't stay due to travelling back home later that evening) I know this seems like a very negative feedback, it's not meant to be. I WOULD and WILL go back, this time when it's cooler though! Hopefully then there will not be as many tandems going and a few more fun jumpers to do a little RW with and instructors that may actually have a few minutes to sit and get to meet the new people on the DZ. Thanks again for a few good jumps!
