To sign up for a class or to schedule a tandem jump, call us at (316) 776-1700 (note the local Wichita Kansas phone number!). You will talk to a real person most of the time. We are generally available to take your call seven days a week and all daylong. At times, you will get voice mail if we are unavailable or on the other line, please leave a message and we will do our best to return your call in a timely manner.

In the recent years many websites have popped up offering skydiving gift certificates and attempting to book reservations for skydiving. They appear to be representing a skydiving center in your local area and make claims that they have the highest skydiving safety record, use the best equipment, have been serving the local area for a long time, offer the least expensive skydive, and have the closest jumping location to metropolitan areas. However, these websites are actually nothing more than a middle man or skydiving reservation agency which costs you money. Be leary of their many misrepresentations!

TANDEM:
Yes, a $50 deposit is required to schedule a tandem skydive. The deposit if fully refundable with a 7 day notice of cancellation. We’ll also refund your deposit if we have to cancel the skydive due to weather or other reason. You will lose your deposit if you do not show up at your scheduled date and time, are not 18 years of age or older, or weigh over 230 lbs.   If you’d prefer not to make a reservation and deposit, you can call the day of to see if and when we can fit you in. Through the summer months we are generally operating at full capacity, and scheduling out four to six weeks.

IAD/SOLO:
We do require reservations through the winter months (December/February), and may require a deposit in order to insure that an instructor will be available to train the solo first jump course.

Sat 8:00 am to sunset
Sun 9:00 am to sunset

We schedule a winter closure, generally Jan and Feb. Additionally, we may run shorter hours in December and March.
Skydiving in Kansas is not a full time job. Every staff member has a full time job, family, etc., hence the weekend only hours.

We do jump through the winter months, though prefer the temperature at ground level to be above 40 F for tandem skydiving. Below 40 the cold detracts from the experience.

Yes, We accept MasterCard and Visa.

Yes, we offer gift certificates! Note that gift certificates are not returnable! If the person you’re purchasing the gift for doesn’t want to skydive or can’t for some reason, you may be “stuck”. Our gift certificates are transferable, but again not returnable. We’re always happy to sell gift certificates, but if there’s any doubt at all you might want to consider making up your own certificate, and coming along to pay for the skydive when your special person makes their jump.

Call 316-776-1700 to purchase a gift certificate.

Air Capital Drop Zone is located on Rose Hill Cook Field a privately owned airport. The low volume of air traffic, wide open landing areas, and beautiful countryside make Cook Field an ideal spot for jumping. Moreover, we are located only twenty minutes from downtown Wichita Kansas. Cook Field is located east of Derby Kansas at 7015 South 143rd Street East.

If you prefer, you can print the directions page, and bring it along when you head out.

All Kansas DZs fly either the Cessna 182, or 206, and take up to two tandem pairs per trip to altitude. Each tandem jumper leaves the plane separately, 20 to 30 seconds apart or around ½ mile. We will generally schedule up to 16 tandem students a day. If you’re training Instructor Assisted Deployment, we’ll have one Instructor and up to three students on the airplane. For IAD you’ll exit approximately four minutes between students.

We schedule tandem skydives throughout the day. If you’d like to arrive early for your appointment in order to hang out and watch others jump, then feel free to arrive early. As a rule getting to the DZ early will not expedite your appointment. That said, if you plan to get lost on the drive, then you should also plan accordingly and leave for the DZ early. Very often folks will input the address (7015 S 143rd East) into a GPS, but one slip in syntax and you will “arrive” somewhere 20 miles away. So, plan an additional half hour to 45 minutes for the drive in that case. If you’d prefer to take the direct route, at a minimum print and take along the directions page and use alone or to verify that your GPS is not leading you astray.

“I knew I was going to take the wrong train, so I left early.” Yogi Berra

No, you must be at least 18 years of age.

Everyone who skydives signs a Release of Liability and Assumption of Risk Agreement (waiver), this is the industry standard. The legal age of contract in the state of Kansas is 18, those under the age of 18 can not enter into a legally binding contract. The courts have set precedent that only you have the ability to sign away your right to sue, therefore there is no parental consent option.

For those who are under age, give us a call on your 18th birthday (or a week or two before to schedule)!

EVERYONE who skydives with us MUST PRESENT IDENTIFICATION showing his or her photo and birth date.

All skydiving gear is “Approved” under a type certificate or Technical Standard Order (C-23 series) with the Federal Aviation Administration. Most Single-harness (harness for one person) systems and all of our student skydiving systems have a TSO certification maximum weight of 254 lbs., a 225 lb skydiver geared up ready to skydive will weigh somewhere between 250 and 254 lbs.

The TSO maximum weight for our Tandem Parachute Systems are 525 lbs. With the weight of the tandem instructor, and gear, we can take a tandem student up to 230 lbs and still be within the 525 lb total maximum weight.

Tandem instructors set their own weight limits. If you look around at other drop zones, you will find maximum weight limits for tandem students at most ranging from 200 up to 230lbs. It is more physically demanding on the instructor to take students in excess of 200lb, the upcharge you will pay for a tandem skydive goes directly to the Instructor who jumps with you.

No. A few drop zones throughout the country do require students to do a tandem skydive first. This requirement is generally a business as opposed to a safety decision.

We offer two training methods, one is not necessarily better than the other. Which method you decide on depends more on your motivation, and what you’re interested in getting out of your skydiving experience. By far the most popular method of first skydive training today is Tandem, but if you’re interested in pursuing your skydiving license you will need to take our solo training, Instructor Assisted Deployment (IAD) first jump course. The majority of people who jump will make only one skydive in their life, of those a few want to have “done it by themselves”; again in that case the IAD FJC may be the method for you. Read through the Tandem Skydiving and Solo Skydiving pages for a detailed description of the two training options.

Tandem: short instruction, 30 second free fall, you jump with an instructor, relatively high performance canopy ride.

SOLO: 4 to 5 hour instruction, no free fall on your first few jumps, solo, large docile canopy, train toward becoming a licensed skydiver.

The amount of time required for your training and first jump depends on the training method you have selected. If you are doing a tandem jump, plan to spend two to three hours, longer for groups larger than two. If you are doing the Instructor Assisted Deployment (solo) method, we suggest that you plan to spend the day at the drop zone. We believe you will find that clearing your schedule of other obligations will allow you to focus on your first jump with-out unneeded worries or distractions. If you will be unable to be at the drop zone all day, please let your instructor or jump master know your time constraints as early as possible.

From the United States Parachute Association (USPA)
“A” License
1. Persons holding a USPA A license may jump without supervision, pack their own main parachute, engage in basic group jumps, perform water jumps, and must have:
a. completed 25 jumps
b. completed all requirements listed on the USPA A License Proficiency Card
c. completed five group freefall skydives involving at least two participants
d. received the signature and official stamp on the A License Proficiency Card or USPA A License Progression Card (ISP)

Yes! For groups of 5 to 9 we give a $5 per person discount. For groups of 10 you save $10 per person. Your group can jump a combination of Tandem and/or Solo.

Wear a good pair of tennis shoes (do not wear boots) and casual clothing appropriate for the temperature. If the weather is cool, we suggest that you bring a sweatshirt and/or light jacket. We recommend that you leave your jewelry at home. Not only is there a risk that jewelry may be lost during your skydive, but rings, necklaces, and bracelets can become snagged on the aircraft during exit, leading to injury. We supply all the equipment needed to make your jump.

Yes! Not eating can make you feel even more airsick. Instead, just eat a smaller meal before you jump.

The sensation of freefall is more like flying than falling, and the parachute flight is quiet and inspiring.

No! If that were the case, there would be no skydiving because everyone would have broken legs! In the early days of sport parachuting, landings were sometimes quite hard. The new ram-air parachutes of today allow landings that feel equivalent to hopping off a step 1-2 feet.

Maybe, and maybe not. You will definitely feel a surge of excitement and anticipation before the jump – this is a normal part of the experience. During the jump itself, you’ll probably feel a thrill such as you’ve never experienced – enjoy it!

The parachutes used are specifically designed, large “ram-airs”. A ram-air is a high technology “square” parachute, as opposed to the old style round parachutes.

In the event of a main parachute malfunction, your instructor will release the main and deploy the reserve parachute. We deploy the main parachute above 5,000’ in order to have time/altitude to identify and deal with a problem, and still have a large margin of safety/altitude.

Additionally, all of our reserve parachutes are equipped with the most reliable and modern AADs (Automatic Activation Device) available. The AAD will initiate deployment of the reserve as the tandem pair passes through 1,900’ if they’re falling in excess of 78 mph (120 +/- is freefall speed). For any reason your instructor is incapacitated or otherwise unable to operate the parachute system, the AAD is there as a back-up.

Sorry but NO, you’ll be busy doing more important things.
The United States Parachute Association (USPA) indicates a minimum of 200 jumps before jumping with any type of camera regardless size. Jumping with a camera is a distraction among other things, and especially as a student, you need to concentrate on the skydive. For reference, this is a list of over 30 incidents caused, or related to skydiving with cameras.

Yes! We offer a video and still package, check out more here…
You are also welcome to bring your own camera and a friend to take video or pictures of your jump from the ground.

A 6 – 7 minute video of your skydive on a USB flash drive, edited and set to music. We expect to film you at various times from when you receive your training to after your landing. However, because of the number of variables the only part that we guarantee is the freefall phase. Bonus footage may include climbing into the aircraft, takeoff, the climb to altitude, exit, under canopy and landing.

We use a GoPro Hero digital camera set to take a picture once a second throughout the skydive. We’ll transfer the stills to a CD, edit the video and load to a flash drive. You’ll generally have 200+ high quality still pictures featuring shots in the airplane, outside the airplane just before we roll off, throughout freefall, under canopy, and after landing. The stills are great in that there’s so many things a person can do with them; including social media, email, screen savers, greeting cards, posters, etc.

No. The time/distance gap between exits preclude a camera person being able to film more than one student.

Neither we, nor the weatherman, are 100% accurate at predicting the weather in Kansas. Additionally, the weather can change throughout the day. Please show up for your scheduled appointment, and a decision can be made at that time. We can skydive when it’s cloudy if the clouds are above 10,000’, or below 10,000’ and scattered. Our upper wind limit for tandem skydiving is 25 mph at the top of any gusting. We will typically make the final decision regarding weather the morning of any given day. We’ll call those with reservations, generally a minimum of one hour in advance. If you have a drive in excess of one hour, we’ll note that in the schedule, and do our best to give you adequate notice in order to avoid the drive.

Martin Myrtle, our Drop Zone Owner wrote a article on the subject titled “The Evolution of Sport Skydiving” you can read it here.