Use caution there is now skydiving around the Oceano/Pismo Beach area. This is in addition to Doctors buzzing the beach right off the end of the runway.

http://www.skydivepismobeach.com/

That's just dandy.

I get concerned about skydiving when they announce and the airport is my destination (Taft, Lodi) or on my route (Lodi, Byron, Cloverdale) but the adrenalin rush has gone down to just a little bit over the last couple of years. At this point, I'm happy that the airport is getting more use and anything that will keep Oceano open, gets my support.

I'm under the impression that the county supervisors objected to parachute operations at my home base, E16, and I know that some of the local pilots did not welcome them.

I didn't have a vote, but my vote would have been to allow parachute operations at South County. I can't imagine it being any worse safety wise than the laughable policy of encouraging bike riding in Santa Clara city by posting share the road signs on 50 mph roads with no bike lanes. Maybe, with more use, E16 AWOS of 118.35 since June of
last year, would get that their AWOS into charts and Jeppesen database upgrades and maybe, the men's restroom would get a lock over the sharp aluminum holes in the door remaining from the lock they took out 4 months ago.

Maybe the parachute activity at L52 will encourage more local restaurant use to help that area. If my home base got more activity, maybe it could support more than a taco stand a 1/2 mile walk away, and maybe its gas prices could come down.

Anything that gets people into the air is fine by me but you won't get me to jump out of a perfectly good airplane.
Dick

Ive seen the main resistance to skydiving from airports with a lot of houses and people around and also the airports with corporate jet traffic. The reality is that skydivers are not the threat to aircraft that pilots fear. I wont go into all the reasons why here but the reaction comes from fear of the unknown( 1 minute to skydiving over the xyz airport ) nearly every GA pilot within 150 miles looks around out his windshield and bitches. The problems that skydiving brings is aircraft noise, too much activity, and off field landings. The ambulance rate is no more than when I rode MotoCross.

The only thing I don't like about skydive operations is an aggressive jump plane bullying his way around the airport. I know he's trying to make money, I'm trying to relax and enjoy myself. Not saying that they are all like that. But I've run into one or two.

Edit: But I do kind of enjoy the bikini dives they do in the summer in Hollister.
And those guys have always been real nice about working in traffic.

Been to Harvy up in Washingto and they have extensive sky diving. I always yield to the guy trying to make a living with his plane.

Tim

Just found this on the General Aviation News Facebook page:

58Skylane wrote:Just found this on the General Aviation News Facebook page:

Nice find, wish I was going to be on the same continent.