Desert Skydiving Center

We bought the Groupon for a tandem jump to cross it off the list! But we picked Desert Skydiving because its a small, laid-​back drop zone. We arrived when the place was just opening. Employees and jumpers were arriving, because everyone was so friendly it was hard to know who worked there and who didn’t. Being a little nervous, this was a good thing. Lots of friendly people sharing there experiences put us at ease.
Gary, the owner and videographer, gave us our training and showed us the multiple levels of safety that are included in their tandem equipment. Next was the jump! Because of how comfortable everyone made us feel falling out of a plane at 10,000+ feet seemed perfectly normal. The free fall was exhilarating, but at the same time peaceful! Thanks Mark for the AMAZING first jump!
Skydiving has been crossed off the list, but a static line jump has been added!

I wanted to do something memorable for my 40^th birthday so I rounded up a couple friends and set the date with Desert Skydiving Center. Four of the six of us had never jumped before, including myself — the experience was great! Very friendly and helpful staff. There was a technical issue that prevented me from getting the video/​still pic package but lucklily Mike (my tandem) had a camera that strapped to his hand so I still got a great shot of my experience. Now my husband wants to try a jump and I think I will probably take the leap with him. I would highly recommend Desert Skydiving Center — thanks, guys!!!

As a recently A-​licensed skydiver from a large drop zone in Arizona, I wanted to check out Desert Skydiving in Buckeye for a different experience. The drive was about an hour from Scottsdale, similar in distance to the other drop zone I normally go to.
Desert Skydiving is a small operation with a couple Cessna’s that can take 4 – 5 jumpers (or perhaps 2 tandems) at a time. When I arrived they were preparing for a couple tandems, so I had to wait a while before they could get to me. I wasn’t in a rush, and everyone — staff and jumpers, maybe 15 in all — was friendly. The slow, laid-​back pace was a nice change from my normal DZ which can be somewhat intimidating with its large loads and many highly experienced jumpers.
After getting signed in and oriented (never having jumped from a Cessna before), I geared up and got on a load. Rental gear is $ 50/​jump including packing or $ 75/​day without packing plus $ 20/​jump.
The plane ride up was about 20 minutes up to 11,000 ft but not uncomfortable, and the view was great due to 360 degree windows in the plane. The other jumpers were goofing around which made it low stress.
Spotting for the jump was cake (right over the landing area). Getting out below the wing was a new experience trying not to get blown off before getting in position, but pretty simple. After a nice free fall from 11,000 ft, my rental rig opened fine and flew great. The landing area is pretty big and there’s no worry about canopy traffic with so few jumpers. I was initially concerned about some power lines by the main road but they were a good 1000 ft from the landing area.
It was near the end of the day, and I was invited for a sunset cross-​country jump, but being a new jumper and new to the DZ I opted for a normal jump. After the guys on the cross-​country got back, they invited me for beer by a bonfire, but unfortunately I had to leave.
Overall it was a good time, and I’ll definitely be back!