Skydive Vårgårda
This weekend we decided to take a day and go jumping. The dropzone we found was called Hoppafallskarm. The translation is something like “jump parachute”. Someone correct me if you know the proper translation. For now, we’ll call it Skydive Vårgårda. (What you could think of here is the English word “afford”. The ‘o’-sound is very close to what ‘å’ sounds like.)
The trip was only an hour away from Göteborg, so it was a very fast trip to the DZ. Upon arrival we were greeted at manifest by Mia, who helped us get everything
going.
The hangar was full with a brand new PAC 750. It just flew in the night before and had a manufactured date of MAY 2008 on the ID tag. It even smelled new with a touch of jet fuel in the air. Maybe we would get to jump out of this one?? Unfortunately, we arrived on a weekend reserved for tandem jumping. The new PAC was not yet ready for jumpers and their 2nd PAC was in Stockholm for the weekend. So, we worked in a few solo jumps into the busy tandem schedule on their Cessna 182.
We each made a single jump and had a great time. Everyone at the DZ was great and very inviting. We learned where the PAC was going to be next weekend and also where we should travel in Norway to watch base jumping should we happen to get there.
We found out the DZ was limited to 10 loads per day from 10 am until 5 pm. Outside of that, they can not jump at all. They worked out a new deal when they purchased their 2nd PAC and now they can do up to 18 loads a day from 10 am until 6 pm. This is extremely restrictive compared to the States, but I guess this is the law. I could feel they probably wanted more time to jump (i.e. past 6 pm), but for now they at least get more loads in the limited amount of time.
We also found out the DZ is ran as a non profit corporation. In fact all DZs are this way in Sweden. Each DZ is a club and members pay a fee each year and are then responsible for the upkeep of the DZ.
We walked to the far end of the DZ and found a bunk house with a big screen projection system, about 10 bunks, a bar, and several TV screens, plus they had a huge deck outside. There were a few trailers parked out front. The placed looked very comfortable for a dropzone.
After each making a jump, we decided to call it a day and head for home.
We can now say we made a skydive in Sweden!
Here’s a photo of the first sign you see walking in.
Chad