Page 10 - Volume 15 Number 9

“If I am going to own the aircraft and make payments on it, it would probably be best for me to learn how to fly it ... ”
While their first year of jumping was “rough,” (the internet is a key advertising tool for the business and had not become mainstream yet) they awaited favorable winds. Those came the following year and Hall began working toward his private pilot certificate. “If I am going to own the aircraft and make payments on it, it would probably be best for me to learn how to fly it, as well,” he recalls telling himself.
This philosophy helped him steer the business successfully over the next decade. While personally gaining additional ratings, including instrument and multi-engine, the business added another 1956 Cessna 182 that they modified to a jump plane via FAA 337
8 • KING AIR MAGAZINE
A roll-up door is installed so it can be opened when at altitude and ready for skydivers to exit.
Field Approvals. This addition allowed them to continue increasing the number of loads flown each weekend.
With the additional level of traffic, in 2011, a personal connection and airline captain reached out to him with an idea. He owned a Beechcraft Twin Bonanza and thought that it would make a suitable skydiving aircraft, and Hall agreed. They worked to find another Twin Bonanza that could be used for the mission. The agreement was that the airline captain would purchase the aircraft and lease it back to the drop zone, an easy way Skydive KC could increase load sizes and jump altitudes. While choosing the aircraft type over others was not arrived at quickly, it was not the best for the ›
SEPTEMBER 2021