The long awaited Cessna Caravan is now in daily operations at Skydive Hawaii. All the jumpers are raving about the quite ride to altitude and the tandem customers have appreciated the large door and roomy cabin. The Caravan has the 675 hp turbine engine (yes, that's the more powerful one) which was basically a zero time engine when the aircraft was purchased. The Caravan has been modified with interior, exterior grip bars, cargo pod removal and a cameraman's step. 
The Discovery Channel's American Hot Rod TV show came out to Skydive Hawaii. Shop Manager, Duane Mayer and Mike both took the tandem plunge. Both tandem jumpers had previously warmed up in the wind tunnel at Paris Valley DZ, but they had to admit that experiencing a tandem skydive was the "real deal".  
The State of Hawaii, Department of Transportation, Airports Division has cut and removed all the remaining tall trees up wind of the Dillingham Airfield drop zone. The removal of these ironwood, false hale koa trees and hau bushes have greatly improved landing conditions for both student and experienced jumpers. The safety improvement to our drop zone is hard to imagine by those who have jumped at Dillingham before this work. Watching landings now, it is hard to believe the number of good jumpers injured over the years. Max Mueller has already returned from Germany to Skydive Hawaii (he says that he may never leave this time since the Caravan has arrived). We're also expecting Bo, Alex and Stan to return in the next few weeks. |