BHawks

Pacific Skydiving Center is by far the best of the two Oahu DZs. However in my opinion there are few wrinkles that they need to iron out. For example; If you need any kind of re-currency training they tell you to come in early and you come in early, and you watch load after load go up ... wondering when you are going to get up. You go up and ask manifest and they get annoyed at you. Then, all of the tandems are done for the day they shut down, and you wasted your whole morning. What they need is some kind of appointment to reserve an instructor. Another problem is the availability of rental rigs. If you are a fun jumper, better get there early if you are not bringing your own rig. I have again sat around for a rig to become available, then the tandems stop, and there is another wasted morning. That is the bad, here is the good. The clouds opened up and the light shined down upon me. I just did my A -License re-currency dive a few days ago. They pulled a tandem instructor away from doing tandems (wow) and took a right w/o a cypress to the rigger to have him put in a cypress, manifested me, gave me my ground school and wow, I actually jumped! Twice that day! The other day I was able to get in 4 jumps, with the rig no one wanted. I wasn't picky, it was a pink Falcon 265, ( I would rather have jumped my rig, but its reserve was out of date) But I had a rig and was able to skydive. It is hit or miss with this place. I am glad I had a stroke luck with everything working my way this previous couple of visits, but if you go there, and it doesn't work your way, well you have been warned. The scenery is fantastic, the King Air gets up you altitude fast, and most of the staff are awesome to talk to. Oh yeah one more thing, they need to start making coffee available to their customers!

I learned to jump at Snohomish. Cecil was the guy on the radio talking me down when I was a student. I met Michelle for the first time this year at manifest, Lando packing parachutes, bsing with Casey and asking him about freeflying over a coke. I keep seeing their faces. I don't jump often at Snohomish but I enjoyed every minute with these wonderful people. Goodbye. Benjamin

Just got off vacation a couple of weeks ago and I now I am back on a remote island for six to seven more months, won't be jumping for awhile. One thing is for sure, when you live on a island a lot of things go through your head more so when you have normal life keeping you busy. Things like relationships, joining the military, (again, Army says I could fly helicopters) skydiving for a living (NZ skydiving school), school(trying to finish my degree), how many beers did I drink? Becoming a beach or DZ bumb sounds like it wouldn't be such a bad thing either. I went to my first boogie in September and it was awsome being around the vast array of jumpers and experience levels. I shared shots of Patron with members of Team Guano, that was cool, just a regular schmo like my self to be even in the company of these world class skydivers was unbelievable. Well, while i finish out my sentence er I mean tour at Miday, I am trying to finish my degree from Embry Riddle. I hope to get into the sky sooner than later. Happy Landings everyone. -Ben

I have a Sabre 210 that is my first canopy. I like it. Being used to student rigs and rental gear, this has so far offered me a downsize from the 285 student gear to the 210. It gives me some nice performance, its easy to pack (for me) controls are sensitive but not too much for a low time jumper such as my self. I read so much about the hard openings, my first jump on the canopy spanked the living day lights out of me, like a reserve pull. I read about the new slider from PD, it is rather large, that with a few tricks I learned about pro packing I have not had a problem yet. I look forward to wearing this canopy out.

Hey, Thanks very much for the invite. As I get closer, I'll give you both a shout out. Question, is my rig good to go for learning about freeflying? I have a Racer NOS, the velrco is in decent shape, I have heard and read different stories.

Just an informal question. What are some people's favorite beer to drink after a day with the adrenaline pump on? When I had my "first" I bought the DZ Alaskan Amber, (and the rigger a bottle of Maker's Mark) that went over really well. But still a guinness fan! Got to love my Motor Oil beer.

I am headed to Seattle, WA for three weeks in August to visit relatives and friends, but none of them jump! Then its back to the island. I'm looking for someone to jump with, I want to get as many jumps in as possible. Probably head to Snohomish. I finished my A license on my last trip to Hawaii, have my own rig, now I'm looking to learn more about our awsome sport, like learning how to freefly and become a better canopy pilot. Hope see some of ya'll in the sky.

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Hi, I must be doing something wrong. I finished up my A license at Pacific. I have jumped there and at SDH. Getting recurrent one time for me was easy, and the other, well I called a few days in advance and said I would like to reserve some time with an instructor or coach to get back up to speed. They said, no problem, just come on in and well you get you squared away. I did just that, and I sat at the drop zone and waited and waited was told repeatedly, an instructor will go up with you on the next jump, finally the last call came for the for the last load of the day. I went up to manifest and asked, what do I need to do, pay for a freaken tandem to get the time with an instructor to get current again? After that, it was like the sky opened up, the instructor made sure I knew my stuff, we jumped, and bingo I was current again. I fell out of currency one time, I showed up, and it was almost too easy. So, in my opinon it is hit or miss with those dropzones. One day they are glad to see you, the next you some "thing." Anyways...just my .03 cents.

I'm probably going to get a biased opinion here, but, I'm bored so I am throwing this out there for commentary. A buddy of mine went to the NZ skydiving school, unfortunatly he broke his ankle on a jump and won't be jumping for awhile. Probably the July class. He is down there in NZ with his ankle in the air saying "are you healed yet, are you healed yet?" Basically the fork in the road is, join him in NZ or join the National Guard with a I would say with a pretty darn good chance to fly helos. Hmmm...both in the sky...hmmm... Anways, thoughts? Thanks

I did the S/L progression, and when I did my first PRCP...let me just say I was known for the rest of the day as "the flying ripcord." I chucked that thing into the next county. Oops!

Hi everyone. Just started posting stuff. I just finished my A license, have my own rig...a Racer / Sabre 210 / PD reserve 193. I work as a Firefighter/EMT on the remote Island of Midway. Which is ok money, but really bites as I can't use any of my before mentioned stuff! Just wanted to say "hi." Look forward to reading all what goes on around here. -Ben

No kidding, we have like a million albtross out here, and we are 1200 miles away from Honolulu. No way a Heli is flying out here, Midway is the definition of out in the middle of nowhere! Birds would make it a hazard for helis and parachutes, we only conduct aircraft operations at night.

Can we turn it into a dropzone? I wish, this island is controlled by the Fish and Wildlife Service. The emergency airport here is a thorn in their side and they contol almost every aspect of it. The only reason it is open is because of the FAA and heavy hitters like Boeing. Our whole purpose in life is to train, keep the grass down on the runway, play with our nice fire truck and keep from going insane, we drink a lot of beer and play a lot of poker. And for me...daydream about skydiving.

Actually, I have been out for close to three years. Starts driving you bananas. Then you want to leave, so they promote you. When i was in the Marines, about to get out, this job for a firefighter was on the bulletin board, so I applied and was hired. The job is open, anyone have a firefighting background and want to come out for 4 or so months?

Thanks, Good luck with your first few jumps.

Hi everyone. Just doing some shouting out loud. Just finished my A license, 50887. Now, I am stuck on a remote airport in the middle of the Pacific! Won't be jumping for awhile. Oh well, stuff happens! Anyone want to come out to Midway Atoll..:) lol

I am new to the sport, I have 4 jumps, this is the second time I have been to this drop zone, my first jump was here, the other two at locations in WA state. As for being new and being very eager to learn all I can. I was very frustrated when I asked my tandem master about skydiving questions such as progression, questions about gear, and control in freefall etc. I can understand that he does this every day and probably gets asked a lot of the same questions but, I am paying good money to jump here, and I would least expect my skydiving related questions to be answered. Other than that, the jump was amazing, I was the most comfortable in freefall I had ever been, the camera person did an excellent job, the dropzone staff were very helpful, I will persue my AFF training there, I give the facility an over all rating of 4.