The Desert Campus at Skydive Dubai

Great DZ. Very friendly staff, coaches, office personnel. I'm still working towards my A license and the staff jumped right in with a recurrency jump, let me go solo and then we started on coach jumping. Everybody was super helpful, friendly, VERY knowledgeable. I learned a great deal beyond my basic AFF class. Best part is that they teach because they CARE. I never got the feeling that they were putting up with me simply because they were being paid to.

Great vibe. Everyone was super friendly. Fun jumpers, teams, etc. The attitudes of the people I meet at any DZ make me really appreciate my new favorite sport. This DZ really helped drive this home. Everyone I met tried to help me in some form or fashion and helped keep me on the proper path. Sometimes breaking me of bad habits that I have learned elsewhere. I really appreciate that everyone stepped up to help instead of just letting me make dumb mistakes. :-)

Also, the staff comes from all around the world. They are very energetic, professional, calm, and care about safety first and foremost.

Side note: My Alti broke halfway down on my first jump (recurency jump), but due to the calmness of the instructor(Kevin) and good inflight communication, we completed all tasks for the jump, and he let me know when to pull. Landing without altitude awareness, or previous experience at the DZ proved "interesting". It's difficult to judge altitude for landing pattern with dunes below and no idea just how big the LZ really is. Also, the heat factors in greatly with descent rates (air density altitude) and landing flare altitude. Lessons learned (Turns out I don't slide very well in sand....ouch). Still kept jumping though.

I cannot recommend the Dubai desert campus enough. Was the best experience I've had in my short time jumping. Will be back as soon as I can!

First of all, the "Desert Campus" is a far more enjoyable DZ than "The Palm"... the vibe is way better here, and the staff is actually there for the normal skydivers, and not just Tandems.

prices of jump tickets are fair, but it is difficult to do many jumps a day, since the DZ closes at 3 in the afternoon... premanifistation is not allowed unless doing coaching, and you can easily get 1 hour calls between loads (so don' expect more than 5-7 jumps pr. day).

The staff is super friendly, and all who i've encountered there where always willing to help with load-organizing, coaching, or just chatting.

with a view on the lading area, the small cafe offers food and drinks all day, to reasonable prices.
A gear shop is also located on the DZ, but IMO the prices are too high ( i was downsizing to a 135" when i was there, and wanted to try one out for 10 jumps, and ended up paying 270$ for it!!)

all in all, Tte SD2 is a nice place to be... nice atmosphere and solid staff.

(finally just a quick note: Alcohol is normally not permitted in the UEA, so to get beer, you have to find one of the hotels that are licensed to serve beer... i can recommend "Premier Inn", on highway 66 towards Dubai)

I was there one day in January 2015...unfortunatelly, only one day. I was really surprised from the professionalism there, somewhere in the desert.

When I was there, two Otters were flying round and climbing to 13.000 ft very fast. It's really a nice view over the desert, and, you can't miss the landing zone, almost impossible :-)

There are two packing areas, several video/team rooms, a shop and a nice bistro. I did 4 jumps there with a rented rig.

Getting there: I rented a car at the airport for 110 AED (Europcar), very cheap.

Sorry for my bad english...

Dirk

People were friendly, possible to get lots of loads in here. Good aircraft. Very professional. Good rental gear. Had a great time!

I loved this place. Great facilities, lots of pros on hand, very frequent turns of the aircraft, great rental gear, and beautiful desert scenery and cool place in general. Flight school in-house, gear store, and there's a wind tunnel on site!

The ONLY downside I can think of is that it's a bit far outside of Dubai - about 50 minutes, and I had written to them on FB to ask about transportation and didn't get a message back. I ended up hiring a taxi and paying him a bit to sit and wait for me for the 3 hours I was there. I paid a total of $90 for that, which is NOT bad considering what it would cost to do that elsewhere, but it was an added expense.

Otherwise, loved this place and can't wait to go back.

I've just finished my AFF at there and I have to do my solo next. Very friendly and helpful staff with safety of all as their priority. The dropzone is perfect for new jumpers with soft sands all around the DZ & a lot of buggy vehicles to pick up jumpers who land a little faraway or just if you don't feel like walking back.

The mix of people from different countries and experience gives this DZ a great fun vibe, with a lot to learn from everyone.
The wind tunnel next door from the DZ gives the chance to go back and forth on holds and get the time and chance to master some skills. Can't wait to go back after saving some money! :))

I took my AFF course here, and it was great! it is my "home" drop zone as its the only place available for me to jump! The desert scenery is beautiful and the landing area is very easily distinguished from its surroundings.

All in all I would say that its a Great drop zone to start at and work your way up, they offer many different types of coaching from freeflying, swooping, etc.

has been a pleasure to start my skydiving here and I continue to go back!

The AFF course could have been a little cheaper though!

I went there to do AFF course , and to be honest I had bad experience. I cant judge if this the issue with all aff instructor or only mine.

1- It's really expensive for AFF , and they ask to do 10 coach Jump after AFF , so needed price to do it at SkyDive Dubai SD2 is double the price of doing it in Spain or South Africa.

2- Bad attitude , I would say that depend on your nationality if you are local or European you wont face this issue.

3- My instructor refuse to give me the jump videos cause copying will take time and he have 3-4 AFF students, to jump with.

4- If the instructor told you , " You will Jump after one hour", then that mean you will jump after 3-4 hours , and that's really boring and kill the fun in going to the dropzone

5- Skydive Dubai desert campus is in middle of no where , around 50 min driving from the city and the desert view is not beautiful

6- Instructor is not supportive

Again Ive seen alot of people recommend this dropzone and that's dependant on their AFF instructor.

This purpose built facility in the middle of the desert has attracted some of the best instructors from all over the world. With a fleet of superb aircraft, occasional helicopters (Bell 212s) on hand and regular balloon jumps in the season, the biggest challenge with this dropzone is where to go to find something nearly as good!