Place for Swoop camp in Europe?

[conor 0]

I'm interested in getting involved in competitive swooping over the next year and would like to know of any good European dropzones that I could train at.

Ideally the dropzone would have
- good weather (at least most of the time)
- good airlift potential (possible to do 8-10 jumps in a day)
- reduced jump prices for those that don't go to full altitude (most training jumps would just be hop n pops)
- easy to access (geographically)
- good landing area
- swoop pond (not essential)

Does anyone know of such a paradise in Europe?

Thanks,
Conor

[dragon2 2]

Dunno about the weather (although we did have an awesome summer, and a lower ceiling is less op a problem for low hops), and no swoop pond, but at Teuge, The Netherlands things are starting to pick up, swooopwise. We'll have a Dutch Swoooping Tour in 2004, starting and ending in Teuge. I'm sure Henny Wiggers'll post more details on that when everything's been finalized and the website is up and running.
We have a very big landing area, in which we can set up entry gates and a course for swoooping, and usually the sunset load has some swooopers with gates etc right in front of the hangar. Way cool.

Jumps are from a Grand Caravan, maybe 2, next year, with occasionally an extra C182, 206 or 208. 10 jumps a day is doable but may not always be. Jump prices are according to exit heights and day-of-the-week and membership: € 12 for 3.5/5k for non members, + 1 € on a Sunday/holiday. We also have a bunkhouse and a bar that are really good.

ciel bleu,
Saskia

[lazyfrog 0]

empuriabrava, good airlift, good people
lillo, swoop pond, don't know about airlift
www.epco.aero only weekends but you can do many jumps in a nice scenery

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Fumer tue, péter pue
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ourson #10, Mosquito Uno, CBT 579

[alain 0]

nowhere in france
swoop comps are pretty much banned and not covered by the federal insurance.
our federation believes for some reasons that swoop competition are too dangerous...

[garywainwright 0]

Chris Lynch and Al Macartney set up a UK swoop tour in 2003 and had 2 events - look out for more in 2004. Check out www.swooping.co.uk

2004 dates haven't been anounced yet though.

http://www.garywainwright.co.uk

Instagram gary_wainwright_uk

[emallin 0]

Try Offenburg, Germany. I hear it's really nice around March!

[conor 0]

Mallin,
I plan to stay as far away from you as possible! We get rid of you for 11 months of the year and thats not long enough :-)
Conor

[flex1 0]

You should sign up for the mailing list on the home page of www.proswoopingtour.com. The 2004 season schedule will be released soon, and there could be some events in Europe. The PST sends information to the mailing list on a regular basis.

[voidlizard 0]

Take a look at the leading Russian dropzones.

The weather is usually acceptable in summer;

The airlift potential is very good - Stupino and Kolomna dzs have several aircraft like Mi8 Heli, An28, L410. All of them allow to take more than 20 skydivers on board. This allow to do 8 - 10 jumps easily. The Russian RW (world's champions, btw)and Free Fly teams did 15 - 20 jumps in a day in the past summer. Kolomna did 64 loads in a day once (more than 1000 jumps).

The jump's price is probably lowest in world - about $11, and even less (~$9) if you buy them in bundle by 11 - 50 jumps. The jumping attitude is 4000+ meters (~13000 feet)

>easy to access (geographically)
Both of the mentioned dzs located near the Moscow.

> good landing area
Both have very large landing areas.
There are no swoop ponds yet, but there is a small lake near the Kolomna's dz and sometimes swoopers jumps on this lake.

Moreover, Kolomna worked every day almost whole the past summer.

The another good thing, that the both dropzones located in about 50 miles from each other, and you may visit them both easily.

There is also couple of nice dzs in Ukraine too.

PS.
Yes, jump prices also reduce if you jump for a swoop from the low attitude, but DZO's usually not welcome the low-att jumps in good weather days when there are lot of skydivers at dz...