Bad experience with a DZ, need a little advice

Hello all,
I started AFF this week and just passed lvl 2 today. The DZ I am with now is Awesome! If you are ever in Germany FSV Saar is worth the trip. Great facilities and 2 Super vans.

Now for the advice part, I started at the beginning of the week at a different drop zone here in Germany. I drove 1.5 hours one way and showed up at the correct place and time Monday morning. Weather was crap, I was the only customer and I waited 1 hour for the instructor who I was told was only 5 minutes away. No big deal, I am thinking this is how things work so far. After about another 10 minutes and it is now the second time I ask, I get to some paper work and start reading the manual I was handed. Another hour goes buy, still crap weather, no one is jumping, no other customers are even there. I have read through everything and I am at a point where I need instruction. Finally the instructor shows up, takes me to the hangar and starts to go over things with me. He seems very disorganized and a mess. After about 5 minutes of this, he tells me to hang on and goes back to the office. 5 minutes later he comes back out and tells me that he cannot teach me anything today, he is too hungover. We discuss this a bit, he says, to show up tomorrow at 9am and we will start again. I am pretty tolerant and decide to give him and the DZ a shot at redemption. I drive 1.5 hours home. Next day I drive another 1.5 hours to the DZ only to find out that I will not be getting any training again today as the instructor showed up drunk or something went wrong and he will not be working there (slight language barrier on this one) The owner apologizes and offers to pay me something for my gas. I am pissed at this point, 6 hours of driving for nothing. I ask around a bit and find out that this place is more for tandem, I should have done some research I guess.

My question after this long story, how should I proceed? Should I tell others to avoid this place, should I right a review and name the place so others will know?
This may seem odd, but I am still very new to the skydiving world. Thanks again.

In my opinion you should just move on. For four reasons:

-Days with shitty weather, things go pretty slow in any DZ, at least according to my experience. Better fill your bucket of patience if you keep on skydiving, sometimes it can be unnerving, particularly as a very beginner.

-It looks like the major problem was the instructor. It looks like he might not be there working anymore so no point in badmouthing the whole DZ.

-A tandem DZ can very easily suck as an instruction DZ, but be good for tandems. Again, no point in badmouthing the DZ, it was just not the right place to look for instruction.

-The owner apologized for any inconvenience and offered you money for gas. They clearly have good intentions and they didn't want to mess with you. Why stab them with a bad review just for a couple of drives and an unprofessional service by an instructor that no longer works there? I understand your frustration, but again, patience is a virtue, particularly in skydiving.

Disclaimer: Even though my profile says I live in Germany, the only jump that I made in Germany was yesterday (I normally cross the Belgium border), a balloon jump and I barely interacted with anybody, so I have no dog in this fight, I am not defending the DZ because I think I might know them or anything like that.

And welcome to skydiving!

Skydiving can be a great source of fun and an equally source of disappointment. I have found that some places have less to offer than others and some places are spoiled by one or two people’s actions. Try to get past the disappointments, look for the good stuff/places, be careful/safe, and have fun.

Thanks Gents for the replies, I was stuck on how to proceed, I am going to just leave it be and move on.

I do want to put another plug in for FSV Saar, they have been awesome, got me right in, started a class for me (by myself) and have been nothing but awesome, They have a huge packing area and a nice bar and great people. Camping, showers, and everything is clean. Tons of AFF instructors and planes are flying non stop.

Most DZ's I've had the opportunity to visit have been wonderful. And, I'm guessing, most of them have had bad days. Some day, give the first DZ another try.

The weather has been schiesse schnitzel for most of the last month. Between bad winds, low clouds and rain I think I've managed eight jumps in the last four weeks (and four of those I drove 6 hours one way to do)

Did you call that morning before you went and drove an hour and a half? Did you check the weather?

For that matter, there are 18 Dropzones within an hour and a half from Ramstein, Saarlouis is like 45 minutes away, why did you pick a place that's so far?

Here's a little advice: Learn some patience (And then some extra patience since you don't speak the local language), because unless you take a week to go to Spain or Portugal to get your license, you're going to be on AFF/Student Status for most of the rest of the summer, and that means there are going to be a lot of conditions, even at Saar, where you're not going to be able to jump at all and you're going to waste quite a few drives. Get used to it. If you're losing your patience over having to wait 5 or 10 minutes, you might want to reconsider if Skydiving really is for you.

Proof - Original Fandango Skydiving Scene Part 1 of 3

Kinda sounds like you're past part 1...

MikeBIBOM

there are 18 Dropzones within an hour and a half from Ramstein

wow, that seems a lot! you guys must have a lot of jumpers

FB1609

***there are 18 Dropzones within an hour and a half from Ramstein

wow, that seems a lot! you guys must have a lot of jumpers

When you're not Canadian, an hour and a half driving radius is often your entire country.

Let's put it this way. There are (listed here) 42 dropzones in Canada. There are (listed here) 87 in Germany. Skydiving is pretty popular here, but the 18 I mentioned includes DZs in Belgium, Luxembourg and France too, all of which are

MikeBIBOM

Let's put it this way. There are (listed here) 42 dropzones in Canada. There are (listed here) 87 in Germany. Skydiving is pretty popular here, but the 18 I mentioned includes DZs in Belgium, Luxembourg and France too, all of which are

Im jealous.

As far as I know, there is only one DZ in Luxemburg, located at Noertrange near Wiltz.

In Canada, near Montreal (within 40 minutes driving), you have 4 Canada leading DZs, all with turbines (Caravan, Kodiak and Twin Otter) including very competent and professional coaches and instructors. Those DZs organize boogies or special events and big way camps (both for Freefly and belly) from May to October. At least two of them are open 7 days a week. Better yet, at Laval, North of Montreal, you have a 14 ft diameter SkyVenture vertical wind tunel where you can book for professional coaching and improve your skills.Montreal is also one of world favorite destinations. Skydivers, Montreal is your town, come on in and visit us.

MikeBIBOM

Let's put it this way. There are (listed here) 42 dropzones in Canada. There are (listed here) 87 in Germany. Skydiving is pretty popular here, but the 18 I mentioned includes DZs in Belgium, Luxembourg and France too, all of which are

Skydiving is no *popular* sport in Germany, not even *pretty popular*. We have abt 14k licensed jumpers, active are not more than 10k.

Well, popular is a relative term. Compare that to someplace like Ireland where they have only a few hundred. Also when I drive to one of the DZs I frequent, I pass four others on the way.