Two dropzones review for AFF

Hello all

I am planning ahead of time  for summer of 2020 to redo my AFF. 

It all started with flex's jump.

I went to Dubai in 2012 for a tandem and new right there I wanted to do this all the time.

but there is no dropzons home. Parachuting is still a military activity in Saudi Arabia.

so I went to the states. One thing worth mentioning is that I was not an athlete and had always childhood obesity.

anyways, that done with, I went to Sebastian Florida, end of may begining of april 2013. 

Little did I know, the weather was not merciful. 

I stayed for a whole week, seven days from 8 till 5 and could only jump twice.

my instructor was a British gentleman who in my opinion was a super instructor. I forgot his name. I met him in january 2016 in Dubai plam dropzone. He moved there. 

I had to leave. 

The following year , 2014, I decided to go to the best place, or that how it was advertised. 

I went to the desert to Eloy AZ.

i stayed for a few days and did 6 jumps and left.

The place is superb for teams and professionals and those who are getting their ratings.

my experience was bad.

Instruction was lazy. Oversight was lax.

one of my jumps I picked a 185 canopy rather than 240 for students.

the guy in the equipment room was busy watching a movie on the 1960 10inch TV that was on.

I decided to leave.

now, my next trip is summer of 2020. 

And was thinking of skydive chicago.

I'm new here and could use some pointers.

please feel free to comment on my experince.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Blue skies 

Hey Yousef,

I would do a little research and try and find a DZ  that has little influence from the weather. That’s a long way to come and then get rained out. California has very consistent weather in the summer. SkyDance, in Northern California has a pretty respected AFF.

I would also try and find a DZ close to a tunnel, several minutes in a tunnel can save several expensive AFF jumps of being frustrated. There is a tunnel close to SkyDance.

Cheers

Skydive Perris gets a lot of people from all over the world.  Military from all over also comes to Perris as well.  So Cal can be a culture shock though if you are coming from the ME.  Nice thing about perris is the planes keep going regardless the time of the year.  Chicago runs a slightly different program to standard AFF but they all get you to the same place.

Also, if you feel something is wrong then speak up or ask for help. Especially if they were watching tv then you should interrupt them.  They will help you, you just have to speak up and ask the questions in a nice way.

When you’re from Saudi Arabia, why don‘t you just head over to Skydive Dubai Desert DZ for your licence? Relative to the US right around the corner and everything’s in english as well. 

Thank you guys for the time taken to reply.

yeah i know Chicago runs another program. I will have to search the weather and see if it is stable during summer.

cali is a good choice but i have to research it as well. Im worried about big dropzones like chicago or perris because of my experience in arizona.

small dropzones would be more relaxed and available compared to big ones. What i learned in Sebastian was not even remotely compared to what arizona offered. 

Yes i will seriously start searching for dropzones in cali that are small. 

As for Dubai, you're right mate it is close and probably one of the best in the world if not the best. 

But  let me tell you a story. In 2013 when i went to Sebastian, the airfare, the lodging, food and transportation, plus whats important the A license, 25 jumps, and still i would have spent less than going to Dubai for the license alone. 

Thank you guys for your responses and my apology for not answering you separately. Im new to forums and don't know how to use it properly.

i will keep updating this post if any new comes up.

Peace love and respect 

Blue Skies 

Eloy is a world class DZ. I'm surprised by your description of your time there.  

On 9/6/2019 at 10:18 AM, Yousef_A said:

The place is superb for teams and professionals and those who are getting their ratings.

my experience was bad.

Instruction was lazy. Oversight was lax. 

one of my jumps I picked a 185 canopy rather than 240 for students.

I have seen a person taking the TI rating course there who also had a lazy uncommitted Tandem Examiner who did a very poor job. It was arranged through their tandem division. I was very surprised that they allowed such people to work there. I guess nowhere is perfect all the time, but SDAZ is usually top drawer.

I know Eloy was the best, that is why I went there. But what can you say? That was my experience.

Ok so it's not just me. 

Actually I can not blame them. I guess they focus on PROs or some of them are tired and not enthused anymore. 

But on the other hand, whos going to reimburse ppl who come from far away to the biggest and best dropzone in the world?

anyways, I guess one learns with experience. The thing in sport though, is that its costly and one can not trial and error.

My decision is that I will next summer go to a smaller drop zone probably in Cali.

are  there any suggestions?

Thanks guys for your time.

I suggest going to Lake Elsinore. Smaller than Perris and lots of friendly people-As I discovered when I went there as a newbie with 40 jumps.

I will definitely look it up. Thank you Sir.