Skydive Coolidge

[bbarnhouse 0]

Skydive Coolidge has been sold and is no longer open to fun jumpers according to the new owners.
It will be used for Military training only.

B2

[DeNReN 0]

Is this something like buying a $20,000 toilet seat?

Inform us please....cant be good if no fun jumpers are allowed...but is it a good thing for the US tax payer?

[slotperfect 7]

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cant be good if no fun jumpers are allowed

Yes it can . . . it will provide a place for military units to hone special skills with access to all necessary assets and free from distractions.

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but is it a good thing for the US tax payer

The business establishment itself is private enterprise. As far as contracting use of the facilities, this is quite often much cheaper than paying for use of training areas on military bases and use of military aircraft.

The true key to the facility's value will be the training and service that is provided there.

Arrive Safely

John

[Zenister 0]

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according to the new owners.

might the new owners also own another DZ in the area? and does this mean the semi-regular 'invasions' of foreign airborne units will cease at eloy?

____________________________________
Those who fail to learn from the past are simply Doomed.

[DeNReN 0]

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Yes it can . . . it will provide a place for military units to hone special skills with access to all necessary assets and free from distractions.

not knowing the DZ nor is opperations....how does having having skybabes and other dudes using the same DZ distract military training?? (do I really need to say?)...train them to suck it up and do there job. In real life they will need to ignore any distractions and perform there duties...why not start to ready them for that aspect in there training??

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The business establishment itself is private enterprise. As far as contracting use of the facilities, this is quite often much cheaper than paying for use of training areas on military bases and use of military aircraft.

Does the US military need to go civi to keep costs down and provide proper training?...ousting fun jumpers to save the military from buying a otter??...maybe they need to look at their own spending practices and emulate a well run DZ.

[PhreeZone 20]

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Does the US military need to go civi to keep costs down and provide proper training?...

Yes, its frequently cheaper to contract out to places like SDA, CSS, and a few other DZ's to lease a plane for a few hundred hours then it is to go buy a plane, do hte maintence for it and then park it. A CASA or skyvan is a fraction of the cost to operate that a C-130 is for static line training jumpruns at 1200 feet. A CASA/Skyvan needs a much smaller airport and frequently less ground support teams also. All that saves $$.

Yesterday is history
And tomorrow is a mystery

Parachutemanuals.com

[BrianM 1]

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how does having having skybabes and other dudes using the same DZ distract military training?? (do I really need to say?)...

Having done a bunch of military training jumps on civilian DZs, there was no distraction. It worked fine.

"It's amazing what you can learn while you're not talking." - Skydivesg

[BrianM 1]

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static line training jumpruns at 1200 feet.

1200 feet??? That's kinda high.

"It's amazing what you can learn while you're not talking." - Skydivesg

[bbarnhouse 0]

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might the new owners also own another DZ in the area? and does this mean the semi-regular 'invasions' of foreign airborne units will cease at eloy?

No...and no.

[VectorBoy 0]

"Air-drop" operations are way down the list of military facilities priorities sad to say. Most have tons of other air traffic and mission needs that come first. It would be like trying to jump at a fairly busy airport.

Meanwhile "air-dropping" is the number one thing on the list at most any dropzone. If a military group can have ready access to planes and some meager ready rooms for training then their traing efforts and resources go further.

[mjosparky 4]

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Yes it can . . . it will provide a place for military units to hone special skills with access to all necessary assets and free from distractions.

not knowing the DZ nor is opperations....how does having having skybabes and other dudes using the same DZ distract military training?? (do I really need to say?)...train them to suck it up and do there job. In real life they will need to ignore any distractions and perform there duties...why not start to ready them for that aspect in there training??

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The business establishment itself is private enterprise. As far as contracting use of the facilities, this is quite often much cheaper than paying for use of training areas on military bases and use of military aircraft.

Does the US military need to go civi to keep costs down and provide proper training?...ousting fun jumpers to save the military from buying a otter??...maybe they need to look at their own spending practices and emulate a well run DZ.

Some of the training done by Spec. Op units is best done away from prying eyes and cameras of a drop zone. And you can be assured that these units are very well trained in dealing with “distractions”.

It is not just the U.S. Military, several of your own Canadian military units spend time down here training at “civilian” facilities.

Sparky

My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals

[Zenister 0]

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might the new owners also own another DZ in the area? and does this mean the semi-regular 'invasions' of foreign airborne units will cease at eloy?

No...and no.

good.

its always fun to have them around...

____________________________________
Those who fail to learn from the past are simply Doomed.

[cpoxon 0]

From http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=15012738&BRD=1817&PAG=461&dept_id=222071&rfi=6

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Civilian jumps to end at Coolidge airport

By PRESTON McCONKIE, Staff Writer August 10, 2005

Military training company takes over; Arizona Skydiving owner deploys for Iraq

Arizona Skydiving proprietor Marc Hogue has been forced to give up his Coolidge-based business in order to answer his country's call.

The Marine reservist, who has moved between the Coolidge Municipal Airport's south hangar and another hangar apartment in San Diego, has provided recreational skydiving training and supervision as well as training for military jumpers for several years. In June he was notified that he was being activated during the last week of July and would be assigned to operations in Iraq.

Initially Hogue considered transferring his lease of the south hangar and an 80-acre drop zone to International Air Response, the airport's major tenant. Airport Facility Director Charlie Recker agreed to an early proposal to pay Hogue $25,000 to take over the lease, with IAR to make its own arrangements for a sub-tenant.

But instead, Hogue negotiated his own arrangement with Florida-based Complete Parachute Solutions. At its July 25 meeting, the Coolidge City Council approved transfer of the lease to CPS.

Spokesman Tim Perkins told the council that CPS was a cooperative organization put together by the nation's three largest parachute makers. CPS is looking to transfer 90 percent of its training activity from its facility in Deland, Fla., as well as consolidate training services currently performed in foreign countries.

In a proposal booklet presented to the council, Perkins said CPS expected to train 440 Marines in Coolidge during the next 18 months, along with elite troops from Canada, Norway, England, Portugal, Sweden, Qatar, Brazil, Singapore, Thailand and Australia.

During discussion of the proposal, Airport Business Manager Matt Spitz acted to head off a potential objection to the arrangement.

"One thing that was a real red flag for me early on was to see that CPS would be training foreign military personnel," Spitz said. "But it turns out that these are all countries being trained with the approval of the State Department, and the individuals who will be trained are reviewed and approved by their embassies."

Perkins said the Marine Corps recently switched to a new parachute design and that the military's central training facility wasn't equipped to train with the new technology, so CPS will be providing the training while the Corps makes the transition.

Perkins said the number of night drops would increase compared to the number conducted by Arizona Skydiving, with many of the training jumps to be conducted after dark at around 3 a.m.

Council member Jon Thompson said, "I don't see a lot of economic benefit to Coolidge if people are jumping at three in the morning. They won't exactly be stopping in town to spend money at that time of night."

Spitz admitted that the groups that came to train in Coolidge would be spending most of their money in Casa Grande because of roomier motels there.

"We really just don't have the facilities here," Spitz said. "And that's kind of frustrating, because from time to time we have a lot of people who would like to stay here in town if we only had enough motel space."

Perkins said groups of 20 would be common, and he planned to steer patrons to Casa Grande until a proposed Best Western motel is built in Florence.

"The airport is actually closer to Florence than it is to Coolidge," Perkins said.

Coolidge has two motels; the Grande Vista with 23 rooms, and the Moonlight with 12 rooms. With the Grande Vista a block and a half closer than the Moonlight to the main traffic artery of Arizona 87/287, it is frequently booked near capacity on weekends.

But co-owner Chandrika Patel said with a month's notice, 20 people could be accommodated. She said the motel gets most of its business from construction-related companies that bring workers to town for a few days a week for several weeks at a time.

Patel also said the motel frequently rented rooms to civilian jumpers coming into town for recreational jumps with Arizona Skydiving.

But CPS is a military-only jump trainer.

Jan Patel, co-owner of the Moonlight (no relation to Chandrika Patel) said her facility is rarely full and business is slow during all but two months of the year.

"It usually gets busy during the winter, but winter is what - two months long?" she said.

At the meeting Spitz said, "I really wish we could get the word out that there are people who would stay in town if we only provided the motel space. The trouble is it's a sort of chicken and egg thing. But if we had the rooms, people would come here for all types of things."

Coolidge Chamber of Commerce President Kari Maud did not return a call asking if the organization had any plans to promote motel expansion in town.

Although Coolidge will not likely soon benefit directly from CPS activities, the council approved the change of lease. Perkins said IAR would benefit from CPS's presence because the trainer owned no aircraft and would frequently contract to use IAR's C-130 plane for launching both personnel and cargo-parachute drops.

Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live