9/18/2009
It looks like September has turned out to be the summer we never had. The weather has been near-perfect for us and we're taking full advantage of it. The airplanes have been flying non-stop this month and we broke our all-time September tandem record on the 14th of the month. We're on track to do nearly 2,000 tandems this month alone! Due to the increase in business, we moved the PAC schedule around and have her at CSC for the next 3 weekends so we will be flying both planes.
We have a big weekend planned for everyone. Starting today, we will be flying all day as we have nearly 50 tandems scheduled. Also, PROskydiving VFS will be training and Rich and Brian will be RW load organizing. This is our customer appreciation weekend thanking everyone for being patient with us lately. The increase in business caught us a bit off-guard and we were seeing long waits to get on an airplane (more about that later). Enjoy $18 jumps today along with $20 jumps all day Saturday and Sunday. Be sure to stick around tomorrow evening for the Mayweather vs. Marquez fight along with free pizza and beer. Sunday morning is the Hinckley Airport Fly-In Pancake Breakfast.
Next Saturday night is Ribfest - a CSC favorite! Also, Nathan will be hosting a video camp for people who currently are or want to start doing video. Nathan is one of the best camera flyers out there and has a ton of information to share. Contact Nathan with any questions or to reserve your slot - nathan@PROskydiving.com
For those of you who missed Brian Germain's Canopy Course last month, he is coming back again October 3 - 5. Brian's course is a must for all recent FU graduates and anyone looking to increase their canopy skills and knowledge. Ask anyone who has taken his course - it's time and money well spent. Contact customercare@skydivecsc.com to reserve your slot.
Congratulations:
Special Thanks:
CSC Future:
There are plenty of rumors floating around about the future of CSC. I would like to set the record as straight as I can. The one thing I can tell you is that CSC is not closing. We have too much invested in growing CSC to what it is today. Additionally, we have an extremely loyal customer base along with the dozens of people who rely on CSC to make a living. Closing down is not an option we are even considering. However, our current lease agreement with the Hinckley Airfield is up in February 2011 and we will not be renewing. We have no interest in being on the Hinckley Airfield under the current management. Additionally, airport management is not interested in renewing our contract and have said they don't want skydivers on the airport any longer. Simply put, with the restrictions placed on us by the airport and DeKalb County, we are not able to grow our business the way we would like. Despite our restrictions, CSC has grown rapidly over the past few years and we are going thru an interesting combination of growth while planning for a substantial capital land investment and move. We are working a number of options that will keep us going and allow us to build CSC to the skydiving center all of us know it can be. We hope you can respect the fact that we are keeping our options close to the chest until we have a solid plan in place. We will be as honest and open as possible, so feel free to talk to us on a one-on-one basis. In the meantime, CSC will be running stronger than ever in Hinckley through the end of the 2010 skydiving season.
Aircraft:
Over the past 4 - 5 weeks, we have seen substantial wait times at CSC due to a dramatic increase in business. Because of the poor weather we had earlier this season, some creative marketing that proved to be very effective, plus our normal busy September business, we are much busier than we would've ever expected. First of all, we are sorry for the wait times and we are working hard to rectify the situation. Since there is nothing we can do about what has already happened, we can offer up our plan moving forward. We are in the midst of an engine deal for the Twin Otter that will give us an additional 140 horsepower which translates to about an extra load per hour along with substantial fuel savings (no, that does not mean your jump prices will be going down unless you want to give us $450,000.00 to purchase the new engines). This deal is not yet done, but we are working hard to finalize the financing side and schedule a time for the engine swaps. Additionally, we've sent the PAC away too many weekends that we needed her here at home. I would like to remind everyone that we purchased the PAC to support and grow CSC not to send on the road every weekend. If we can keep both planes busy here, we would much prefer to do so. The other side of the coin is that we have a substantial obligation to meet every month on these aircraft and can't afford to leave planes on the ground if people don't show up that weekend. All of the commitments we have in place were contracted well before we opened for the 2009 season and canceling them would not be the ethical thing to do. It's a tough balance for us and we are learning as we go. We are planning to have the PAC here full-time starting around 4th of July straight thru the end of September 2010. As for this season, we have several 2 plane weekends coming up which we need as the school is completely booked up every weekend until mid-October with 140 - 150 tandem students per day. As always, the PAC is flying non-stop thru the week, so come on out during the week.
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Douglas S. Smith
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Chicagoland Skydiving Center
1-800-404-JUMP (Freefall University Skydiving School)
815.797.9272 office
815.286.9902 fax
http://perfectlygoodairplane.com
customercare@skydivecsc.com
