Jumptown? In MA.

[promise5 17]

Anyone?
Opinions? Experiences? etc.

No matter how slowly you say oranges it never sounds like gullible.
Believe me I tried.

[BeteNoire 0]

What about it?

[excaza 1]

It's a great place

[skymama 37]

The dropzone has a good reputation.

She is Da Man, and you better not mess with Da Man,
because she will lay some keepdown on you faster than, well, really fast. ~Billvon

[-Joey- 0]

I'm actually moving to MA in the fall so I'm a bit curious about this too :) anyone in MA have a preference between Jumptown and Pepperell?

Skydiving is serious business

[Amazon 7]

promise5

Anyone?
Opinions? Experiences? etc.

I enjoyed Jumptown when I went there for the World Cup SpeedSkydiving meets in 2004 and 2005 ... Great people and they made some changes to their facilities to update them a couple years later.
http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=1751799;search_string=jumptown;#1751799

[BillyVance 34]

Here's another thread with more info on the DZs in question. http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=4452501;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;;page=unread#unread

"Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people." - SIX TIME National Champion coach Nick Saban

[excaza 1]

-Joey-

I'm actually moving to MA in the fall so I'm a bit curious about this too :) anyone in MA have a preference between Jumptown and Pepperell?

I'll usually drive up to SNE, but between those two I'll pick Jumptown.


Because it's a half hour closer than Pepperell

[funjumper101 15]

Jumptown and Pepperell are both great DZs.

Pepperell is the next town to the southwest of Nashua, NH, where there is a tunnel.

http://www.skyventurenh.com/

Given that New England has crappy weather a lot, I'd plan for Pepperell as the tunnel is a short ride away.

Normal planning for weekend is plan A for good weather, and plan B for bad weather. The decision as to which plan to execute can't reliably be made until the day before, if you are lucky, or the day of. Don't like the weather? wait a bit, it'll change.

As far as safe skydiving, you can't go wrong at either DZ.

[jonstark 8]

Try 'em all then decide. It's not like you're gonna marry the place!

jon

[propblast 0]

Great Dropzone. I jumped there last year and the instructors and jumpers where awesome.

Propblast

[Skwrl 56]

funjumper101

Jumptown and Pepperell are both great DZs.

Pepperell is the next town to the southwest of Nashua, NH, where there is a tunnel.

http://www.skyventurenh.com/

Given that New England has crappy weather a lot, I'd plan for Pepperell as the tunnel is a short ride away.

Normal planning for weekend is plan A for good weather, and plan B for bad weather. The decision as to which plan to execute can't reliably be made until the day before, if you are lucky, or the day of. Don't like the weather? wait a bit, it'll change.

As far as safe skydiving, you can't go wrong at either DZ.

I agree with this, but...

For what it's worth, Jumptown is a club owned by its members (the jumpers); Pepperell is a private business. It prioritizes tandems. (Not that there's anything wrong with that, in itself; but at last year's boogie my group of six wingsuiters was kicked off a plane - after boarding - to make room for tandems, because tandems make the DZ more money. That demonstrates a difference in priority.)

Also, tandems at Pepperell get out at 10,000, because that saves money on Jet-A. In a way, that's nice because experienced jumpers get more room in the plane after they exit. But I don't like taking friends on tandems there unless I cut a special deal to get them all the way to 13,500. Let's face it - 10k is a short tandem ride.

Skwrl Productions - Wingsuit Photography

Northeast Bird School - Chief Logistics Guy and Video Dork

[ChrisD 0]

promise5

Anyone?
Opinions? Experiences? etc.

When I was in the area I found Jumptown to be a great place. As you know some find the vib at DeLand to be a little brusk, I love DeLand, the people, the food, the area, the weather,...and freely admit because of the buissness of the place it can be a little brusk,...

Jumptown is
DeLand without the bruskness'

On the other hand Pepperell is great,.. as is SNE and CPI, as well as the ranch, as well as z hills,...!

If you weere to ask specificics rather than stuff which is more akin to personalities and personal prefrences you might get more specific responses.
For example:

Published operating hours.
Number of loads on a particular midweek day.
Food.
Nearby lodging.
Nearby windtunnels.
Number of days as compared with other DZs' on wind holds
Number of fun jumpers.

Proximity to Boston:
Pepperell 40 min
Orange 90 min
SNE 100 min (Approx drive times from the Boston area)


Size of landing area

Orange hands down, it's huge, you can still manage to land off though,...

Does this kind of stuff make sense?

I also plan on driving to pigeon Forge when I get back to New England in the next few weeks to spend some time in the wind tunnel from hell just because I like the owner and do a few jumps in Seviervill TN, the Dolly Wood area is Great in the summer, cheep camping areas with all the fixin's for under ten bucks a day! A hundred varied places to eat, many places offer food you just can't get anywhere else! The smokey Mountians right there! Indian reservations, muesum and culture an hour away! Plenty of stuff for the kids, an aerial tram, worlds biggest pancake house, (bring your own maple syrup though), and the wind tunnel from hell, half the cost of other tunnels and if you can fly here you have mad skillz!!!

C

But what do I know, "I only have one tandem jump."

[ikron 0]

Jumptown has a family feel to it, the jumpers look out for each other which is nice. I've heard second hand some people feel it's "clique-y". I would disagree, but can see how the family feel could give that impression.

One of the more experienced ladies there has spent a lot of time and effort developing a strong SiS program. Ask manifest if someone could talk with you about SiS and what they're doing with it.

They have a lot of skills camps for the various disciplines, depending on what interests you.

The post sunset actives are a bit tame compared to some DZs: Small bonfire, beers, jump talk.

[-Joey- 0]

Skwrl

Also, tandems at Pepperell get out at 10,000, because that saves money on Jet-A.

How does that save money on Jet-A if the plane is still going to climb to 13,500 anyway? the weight of the jumpers is negligible compared to the weight of the airplane. I would think doing two jump runs would cause the plane to spend more time in the air.

Skydiving is serious business

[Skwrl 56]

-Joey-

***
Also, tandems at Pepperell get out at 10,000, because that saves money on Jet-A.

How does that save money on Jet-A if the plane is still going to climb to 13,500 anyway? the weight of the jumpers is negligible compared to the weight of the airplane. I would think doing two jump runs would cause the plane to spend more time in the air.

I've had the same thought. Apparently, the answer is "enough to make it worth the DZO's while to do this". [Shrug.] I'd love to hear a turbo-prop pilot's point of view on this...

Skwrl Productions - Wingsuit Photography

Northeast Bird School - Chief Logistics Guy and Video Dork

[DJL 235]

Great people and after-hours atmosphere.

"I encourage all awesome dangerous behavior." - Jeffro Fincher