SkyVenture Perris

[JakGramley 2]

Today (5/18/2002) Melanie and Pat Conatser, owners of Perris Valley Skydiving, announced that final paperwork had been signed for the new SkyVenture Perris Wind Tunnel. The wind tunnel will be located on the Perris Valley Skydiving property. Construction should be completed within 12 months! This facility will be identical to the one in Orlando except that it will have higher powered fan motors to allow for VRW as well as RW training. We will announce more information as it becomes available.
Jack Gramley
General Manager
Perris Valley Skydiving

[SkydiveMonkey 0]

Nice !! I'll be heading out to Perris about this time next year as well, so perfect timing !!
There's no tomorrow - you ain't gonna live it for me - The Offspring

[Michele 1]

Well, thank God it will be here in a year...that will give me time to save $$ so I can do the tunnel! ROFL...this skydiving shyte is expensive!
Tell Pat and Melanie congratulations and thanks! 'Twill be an excellent addition to an already outstanding DZ!
Ciels and Pinks-
Michele
If you really want to, you can seize the day; if you really want to, you can fly away...
~enya~

[airgord 1]

Not to steal Perris's thunder but there will be a Skyventure tunnel in Arizona about 40 minutes from Skydive Arizona,
near the town of Chandler.
This tunnel should be operating in about 9 months.
Two tunnels in the Southwest, no more expensive, sweaty Orlando!!!!

[gravitysurf808 0]

hmmmmm wind tunnel time at Perris?...reasonable plane ride from here....some vertical tunnel time...with some coaching...then finally I can "call myself a freeflyer" and still sleep at night....hmmmmm
"This is the 4th time I've been late for work this week!!...and it's only Tuesday!" ...Cheech and Chong

[skycat 0]

I can't wait for the one in AZ to open. I've already got several Eloy trips planned into my winter schedule.

[jtval 0]

thats gonna be SWEET! I plan on jumping out tthere rather frequently when I get stationed in Las vegas!
Life's a bitch, and I'm her Pimp!
JT
http://community.webshots.com/album/38342922cgxRPs

[skybytch 273]

Woooo Hooooo!!!!
Tony told us about this at dinner Saturday night... I told him that just might mean that I was giving my one year notice!
pull & flare,
lisa
If I can't have everything, well, then just give me a taste...

[mnischalke 0]

Who wants to take bets which one is gonna close down first?
Let me put my Devil's advocate horns on.
Through talking to some of the big wigs at Skyventure (I was looking into getting the proforma to create an operation near Washington DC), it seems a full 70% of the customer base are experienced skydivers (read: only 30% tourists). These are folks from all over the country who fly in to Orlando for a hour or so in the tunnel. The tunnel operates regularly from 6:30 am until 2:30 am. This generates about $6 to 8K per day--but, do not make the mistake thinking these things aren't giant energy suckers or that you don't need a staff of at least 6 during operational hours.
Now, with all these tunnels now springing up, a few people won't have to travel as far, but the majority will still have to buy a plane ticket or load up the old chevy to get there (just b/c there's a tunnel in New Jersey, the guy in Ohio is still probably not gonna just gas up the car and run down for the afternoon). My question is: Is there enough demand for big (loud) vacuum cleaners to go around?
peace out
mike
The Lord giveth and the M-79 taketh away. Welcome to the world of zero slack.

[mnischalke 0]

Ooohh, I almost forgot. These things cost better than $3 mil. for warm climates and $4 mil. for the ones with the heater/recirculator attachments. Venture capitalists and Skyventure alike are gonna want to see combined monthly payments totaling $50-80k per month, at the very least.
mike
The Lord giveth and the M-79 taketh away. Welcome to the world of zero slack.

[quade 4]

Well, I'm a strong supporter of the operations at Perris, but I too have my concerns.
I assume the folks over at Perris have done all the math and made some agreements with the other franchises so that things don't grow too quickly and oversaturate the market. It's one thing to have a high demand at one location, but to assume that will be the case at all locations probably isn't the best business model. Again though, I'm sure they've figured this out. They're pretty smart people.
I'm also hoping they set up a separate operation as an LLC that has no ties back to the rest of the DZ -- just in case some whuffo 5-year-old ends up getting hurt. Again, they're smart people and have probably already figured all of this out.
Lastly, I hope the thing gets marketed to the whuffo crowd in a fairly aggressive manner to supplement the good jumpable hours when, hopefully, the skydivers are jumping from aircraft.
It's going to be a wackey first couple of years. Can't wait to see it.
quade
http://futurecam.com

[skybytch 273]

I can see the tunnel at Perris going off in a big way.
I'm sure there are a lot of people in southern California, like me for instance, who could pull off the cost of tunnel time, training or a camp but can't swing the extra cost/time off work required to travel to and stay in Florida or even Arizona to get it.
Student jumpers at just the semi-local dz's (Perris, Elsinore, Otay, Taft, Lompoc, Cal City...) could provide a constant flow of new customers. Imagine the value of having a tunnel on the dz for visiting (not to mention the locals) RW and freefly teams - stay, jump and get tunnel time all in one place.
And hey! We'll have a reason besides the Bombshelter to go to the dz on bad weather days now! pull & flare,
lisa
If I can't have everything, well, then just give me a taste...

[Michele 1]

Quote

combined monthly payments totaling $50-80k per month, at the very least.

Not at all sure about the rest of the country, but I figure Perris will be fine. Lots of tourists, inasmuch as the tandems can show; and one of the finest and busiest dz's in the country.
Just my .02, though. I personally can't wait!
Ciels and Pinks-
Michele
If you really want to, you can seize the day; if you really want to, you can fly away...
~enya~

[jimmytavino 16]

I suppose that the expansion of SkyVenture to other parts of the country is good, and probably inevitable.
I just hope that the new locations do a MUCH better job of having some CONCERN for their clientele. My buddy (who is a gem of a guy), and an accomplished skydiver, was injured last Dec, at the Orlando Location. He apparently slid head first into the wall, and collapsed. His girlfriend was on the scene and thank God she intervened.... The staff was like,,, "well, let's get him out of the tunnel, the next group is ready", "c'mon c'mon he's OK."... Well he wasn't Ok. He broke the 2nd and 3rd vertebrae in his neck, and but for his girls' insistance that he not be moved 'til he could be properly immobilized, he could have had serious neurological complications...... Ok Ok you might say, they didn't know how bad his injury was.........but you know something,,,,,,I was told that NO One from the tunnel, ever followed up,,, called the hospital, called the girlfriend, offered any indication of concern,,,,,or contacted my buddy to check on his progress.......WTF???... He needed 3 surgeries, wore a Halo frame for about 3 months, is still in a slow recovery (6 months later) may not jump for a while and has Still not heard from the "tunnel heads"... Maybe it was an oversight,,,,maybe it was unintentional, but that kind of treatment is wrong.....and unacceptable.
Potential new operators should take heed.....Treat your tunnel flyers like that, and they just might find the way to prove you NEGLIGENT.... then you will have plenty of other worries,,,, besides paying your utility bills! A little consideration goes a long ways.... especially when dealing with a fellow skydiver....(who gets hurt in YOUR facility)...what ever happened to "the brotherhood of jumpers"..??!!........