Start Skydiving is located in Middletown, Ohio about 7 hours and 49 minutes (511 miles) from our home. When I was started planning this trip, I originally picked AerOhio because several people suggested we go there. The route was a little more to the east and about 35 minutes further away. I sent an email to find out when they would be open on Thursday and discovered they open at 4:00 PM. That wasn’t going to work with our schedule, plus Start Skydiving advertises that they are the #1 drop zone in the world. That’s a pretty big claim and I wondered what they had to back it up.
Where to Start? (No pun intended :)
They have an enormous hangar - over 23,000 square feet! It’s super clean with tons of padded packing space and lockers. The hangar is divided into three sections – tandem waiting area, paid packing and experienced packing. I think it’s the largest hangar I’ve ever seen. Add some nice indoor bathrooms and a spacious manifest. What more could you want? Hmmm…how about a gianormous landing area! With over 600 acres of soft freshly cut sod grass, it’s easy to have a picture perfect landing.
Not enough…let’s talk about the airplanes. Yes, that is plural. They have three turbines - two Caravans and a Super King Air. If you aren’t happy with those, they also have an R-44 Helicopter, a hot air balloon and a 206 for fast hop-n-pops. What???? They have their own helicopter and a hot air balloon???? Yes, they have their OWN hot air balloon and their OWN helicopter. Oh, and by the way, if you invest in a Fast Slots card ($25), your jumps will be cheaper AND you can manifest yourself online! What? No standing in line at manifest?
Before leaving VA, I printed out the DZ waivers and Matt filled them out in the car. I think that every drop zone should offer their waivers in advance. It was a great time saver to have them ready in when we walked into manifest. The drop zone also used something called Burble. I envision all drop zones using this technology in the future. You can download an app to your smart phone and use it to manifest. Very clever! While we were at manifest, we put ourselves on the next available load – 30 minutes out. We got our drop zone briefing from a local female jumper. I wish I could remember her name! I really need to start writing down names on these trips!
Matt and I geared up at the 20 minute call, but the plane wasn’t full so one of the local jumpers suggested that we might not go up right away. Sure enough, manifest announced a shut down. We took off our gear and I went to the restroom. Matt as putting some things in the car when we heard the plane was on a call again. We couldn’t hear how many minutes so Matt ran over to the hangar. He came back to tell me it was a 2 minute call! Fortunately, we were jumping in our street clothes. We put on our rigs and were ready to go in time. With the exception of the funky 2 minute call, the level of efficiency at Start Skydiving is remarkable. They had two loading areas that were gated off and each had a small structure to provide shade and places to sit. Everything runs like a well-oiled machine.
As I climbed into the plane, I was thinking. Geesh…I am so tired! Of course, when we opened the door for the low pass the crisp air washed away my fatigue. We decided that this trip would be low passes only. It’s a more efficient use of our time, plus we don’t have to worry about being in the air with a bunch of canopy pilots we don’t know. It’s far less stressful when it’s just the two of us. Matt exited first and I followed him. Under canopy, I realized a few things. First of all, the landing area at Start Skydiving is beautiful and green and HUGE! I also realized that Ohio is very flat - I felt like I could see for miles and miles. Another revelation...we were skydiving in Ohio on a THURSDAY!
Right before we got on the plane, one of the experienced jumpers warned us about landing close to the hangar. There wasn’t much wind, but there was a little turbulence in the D area. My wing-loading isn’t very aggressive so set up my pattern to land further away. I had a sweet soft landing. Ohio – Check! As Matt and I left the field, we saw a man taking pictures. We introduced ourselves and when we mentioned Skydive Orange, the guy told us that he knew Chris Margand (a Tandem Instructor from Orange) and his son. The more we travel, the more we see we are part of a very small community.
I went into the hangar and put my canopy down next to a man that was packing. I said hello and when he replied with a foreign accent I asked where he was from. He said he was from Brazil (and I thought we were far from home!) When I went to make my first line stow, I broke a rubber band. It never fails...grrrr. It seems like that first one has to be replaced all the time. Thank goodness I travel with my best friend in the world - Matt. He’s so sweet. He stopped what he was doing and went to look for some rubber bands. At Orange, we keep them on hand for our fun jumpers. After looking around for a while, Matt asked one of the tandem instructors. Clearly, he was the wrong person to ask as he suggested that Matt go to manifest and buy some. As Matt was walking away, one of the packers got up off the packing mat and gave Matt one. Then, the packer shot several over my way. Very cool!
We put our gear in the car and went into manifest to buy a t-shirt. I thanked them for such a positive experience and asked if they had any local legends that I could get to sign our logbooks. The guy from manifest said that Mieko has over 18,000 jumps and he is Brazilian - the guy that I was packing near. When I asked him to sign our log books, he didn’t hesitate. What else can I say about Start Skydiving? Great facility, very smooth operation, nice locals and did I mention they have their own HOT AIR BALLOON? How cool is that?
BTW…Ohio is a very boring state to drive through. Miles and miles of corn as far as the eye can see! On the plus side, corn is awesome and it doesn’t smell like cow poo!
