Pitt Meadows dropzone closed?

[cjdskydiver 4]

I heard they closed. If so, why?

[stratostar 5]

It winter time and the beers freeze solid eh!

you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

[hcsvader 1]

ATC issues.

Have you seen my pants?
it"s a rough life, Livin' the dream
>:)

[riggerrob 643]

Under-ambitious air traffic controllers and overly-ambitious airport management.
As Vancouver International Airport gets increasingly busy, they require jump-planes to phone ahead to reserve a time to enter Class B airspace (above 3,000 feet over Pitt Meadows.

The second problem is overly-ambitious local air port management. When they got the money to extend the main runway, they decided to do upgrades during the 2017 summer/dry season ..... which is also the skydiving season. The main runway is 08R-26L. Previously - when jumpers were in the air - the Pitt Meadows control tower shifted all traffic to the main runway: 08R-26L, but with renovations, all traffic and was shifted to runway 08L-26R. Unfortunately, the parachute landing field is directly under the approach to runway 08L-26R.

In a rather sneaky move - last winter - the airport banned skydiving when runway 18-36 was being used for take-offs and landings. The parachute landing field is close beside runway 18-36, separated only by a taxiway and a few dozen metres of grass. In the 11 years I worked there, I only saw a handful of skydivers land on that runway. Unfortunately, 2017 winds were more frequent from the north or south.

In 2017, the DZ was prevented from flying so many days that the business was no longer profitable.
I was on the last Navajo load: 23 September, 2017.