Dropzone operating Hours and Days

[ChrisD2.0 2]

So a couple of us after reading something in another post that triggered much debate and searching we came up with the notion that Drop Zones everywhere do a real lousy job at posting when they actually are in operation.

To me this seems like lost revenue.

But lets face it can Drop Zones do better for visiting jumpers and out of town jumpers than just a phone number with, at best an answering machine at the other end, or a web site that posts generic information?

The winter discussion for a big part of N. America and debatably, the summer issue for many southern DZ's really never gets answered.

I mean if you wanted to go to a fun jumping dz in Canada, and it turns out there a more than a few that will put up an aircraft on a moments notice. You would never know.

A brief sampling of about 50 DZs' web sites make NO MENTION of their days of operation, or whether they are a seasonal operation. I mean the locals know. But almost uniformly the advertising and updating of days of operation are very spotty.

It is as if your a seasonal DZ and you close down in November, you could never tell by looking at the 24/7 websites and Facebook pages.

I'm suggesting that not only does this lack of diligence hurt these individual operations , but this seems to be a trend that is actually hurting skydiving as a whole.

The section here on DZ.com is great, but IMO sufferers from a rather noticeable lack of updating and notices of current events. This is clearly the responsibility of the many Drop Zones that for a better description seem to NOT Care about informing the people they allegedly cater to?

IMO this issue needs more attention at the DZ conference than it has gotten before. For the sake of everyone. IMO.

Brett Bickford Did Not Commit Suicide.

He is the victim of ignorance and faulty gear. AND as in the movie: "12 Angry Men," of an ignorant and callous jury.

[grimmie 186]

You should call James LaBarrie and be his guest speaker at the DZO conference on how to maximize income in cold weather locations.

[AtrusBatleth 0]

I use sophisticated methods such as Google and phone calls. It's worked pretty well for me whenever I've traveled. In fact I have fun with it; usually the first thing I do when I find out I need to travel for work or family is to find the local DZs. The only thing that bums me out is finding out they are closed the one day I have free, or that they are a tandem-only DZ. I guess it just depends where you are traveling.

I agree the list on this page is so out of date I stopped looking, and USPA is only going to list member DZs but it is still a good place to start, but usually I skip straight to Google.

Max Peck
What's the point of having top secret code names, fellas, if we ain't gonna use 'em?

[Divalent 137]

grimmie

You should call James LaBarrie and be his guest speaker at the DZO conference on how to maximize income in cold weather locations.

That ChrisD2.0! He knows everything about everything!

[allymae 0]

People just message jumpers they know at DZ's or message the DZ itself on Facebook. Pretty quick and easy answers since most DZ pages have multiple admins, so someone is sure to check their phone and respond even outside of business hours.

I noticed that a lot of local DZs post "this week's hours" on their private facebook pages, and that is how I know where to head after work in the summer time. In the winter here in the Midwest most DZs shut down, yet we are jumping a Cessna every weekend, weather permitting, but all the Chicago jumpers don't know that so we end up shutting down early because people only do two or three jumps before they freeze, so we would need more jumpers to keep the plane going all day every weekend. It's not that bad if you bundle properly.