jamieG

I did my AFF here almost a year ago and am back for my second holiday. This place is just fantastic and it’s what other drop zones should seek to emulate.

The facilities are perfect for skydiving, a large landing area, bar / cafe. I have just bought my first rig from the Sunshine factory onsite shop. I am tosh at packing so the packers are great, fast and friendly.

The social scene is great, lots of other jumpers around which make a difference if you are on your own. Paul M in the bar is hoot.

Highly recommend you give it a try.

Reading through the reviews it appears a tale of two cities with some very positive and some very negative. My own experience is mixed. I have been to 4 drop zones now in total so that is my experience to which I am comparing.
The drop zone was very quiet when I was there (July) closing early one of the days. I did get enough jumps done but this meant there was never a great feel to the place. In addition I didn’t need to know about the drop zone politics.
The main landing area is small ( an early review is generous ) and there are some obstacles in the student one which are not clear (edited in website photos) but on the whole adequate. The Cafeteria and pool have been closed for some time and it doesn’t appear they will open again due to legal issues with the airfield and local town hall. There is the sum total of 2 cafes/ bars (and one expensive hotel) in the local village so your options are limited here when you do walk what is about a mile into the village. This element of the facilities combined with the local town is probably the worst feature and was a real drag on my experience as there is NOTHING to do on the days where the weather isn’t good to jump. The website gives a different impression and talks about possibilities to go into Madrid but realistically it is about an hour and a half (assuming you forked for a rental car which I didn’t). I was there to skydive and not get langers yes… but thought there would be more of an atmosphere in the evenings instead of mind numbing boredom.

Otherwise the drop zone is as you would expect there are 2 planes ( Porter is fast the caravan struggles a bit ) there with good packing facilities and the packers for my rented equipment were good but the prices advertised don’t include things like goggles and altimeter which drive up the rental prices even further. Once there were enough people to fill the load loads got in the air quickly, being in a group is an advantage here as you can get more jumps. I completed 21 jumps in 6 days including some FS coaching; I would have liked to do more. The coaches are very good although make sure that the one you want is onsite the dates you intend to book. I was disappointed to find the canopy coach was away for the summer in competitions.

The staff were helpful but all in all I am disappointed with my trip, from the website I expected a buzzing dz and unless part of a group from Nethers, my home DZ I will try somewhere different next time.