Something changed.... I qualified here in the 00s. I came back in 2011 to visit old faces and this DZ has changed beyond recognition. Unfortunately not in a good way. Instead it went the other way instead. The place has turned into a tandem factory. Tandems on weekends are jumped till 3pm on weekends. You get the odd single slot on these jumps if you want to do a solo. Who wants to do boring solos especially as you have to dive out, poised? Floating no way Jose if you're on one of these 'filler' slots. This is bad in more ways than one as the tandem guys are also the coaches and instructors. So if you want to get your stickers simply it isn't going to happen. Too much money in tandems, experienced people don't make them enough bucks. The experienced guys aren't exactly appreciated either. A tatty welcome sign which has been there for years, a small packing shed and no plug and play free to use screen to debrief on jumps. Everybody uses the tiny screens on their camera equipment instead or brings a laptop (the WIFI is expensive by the way, their website is hideously out of date). The staff seem surlier than before and generally complain about the management muttering under their breath which sets a bad vibe to the DZ in the first place. They do try to be funny but end up ripping into people instead and making deeply unfunny and deeply insulting derogatory remarks. Regarding the other stuff, the landing area is still large and unfettered, though they still have two wind socks one of which is in a turbulence zone and is unreliable. Why don't they get rid of it or move it? There is also negligible post jumping socialising either, when the plane gets taken in people just vanish. And the DZ lacks any fun events, no scrambles, no boogies, nothing other than tandems to make the big bucks and the greatly thinned out regulars. I was unpleasantly surprised by the way many newly qualified folks were pretty much abandoned, as I said progression? Forget about it. The absolutely most damning thing I saw was the blaise attitude towards the rental gear. I was most surprised to open my rental canopy (cypress was being serviced) and see unstowed brakes, knots in the brake lines and holes in the sliders on more than one set of kit. I might have less than 500 jumps but I can see this is dangerous.
