marana skydiving center

[troyzohner]

Does anyone know anything about Marana skydiving center north of Tucson? Are there planes kept up mechanically? Anyone know somebody who flew there and what they thought of the place? Anything else that may be helpful.
Thanks

 

[PTWOB]

Last time I jumped there was 1988. It was great then!!

Blue Skies

 

[Pondscum]

I jumped there a few times in the early '90's. At that time I had a buddy that was flying for them. He said their maintenance was pretty poor and smelling the leaking auto-gas wasn't the greatest, but as he told me "that's why we jump out of them!" He would actually perform some of the maintenance and fuel the planes himself. Maybe that's where the auto-gas smell came from!

I even applied there and eventually turned them down to go fly "the ditch". As I remember, the Tommahawk that we flew for the "checkride" was in pretty bad shape. It (along with their other planes) had been rode hard and put away wet one too many times. Of course this is roughly 10 years ago, and things change.......sometimes.

 

[flybtp]

I flew there for about a week three years ago. That was all I could handle. Bad MX, bad pay. The tomahawk was in pretty sad shape then as well. One of their 182s survived that mid air with the Golden Knights Pilatus two years ago, so maybe they are held together OK, but who knows

 

[brokeMoFo]

I worked there for a week about a year ago. Word to the wise, don't even think about it!! Their 182's are unsafe metal garbage cans. You have to add a quart of oil to them after each jump run. The owners hate pilots and they pay $300 a week to get all of 8 hrs or less flight time. the rest of the time you are wiping the oil of the undersides of the planes. Also, 4 people in a 182 in the dead of summer, trying to climb to 12,000 makes for an interesting experience. If the Feds visited this place, I don't think that they would be around.