
Pat still flys and maintains all of the planes and you can regularly find Melanie at the Bomb-Shelter restaurant. The entire drop zone has a strong family feel to it. Some family members love skydiving and others love flying, which adds up to a perfect combination because someone needs to fly the plane. This is one family that is hard to keep on the ground. These morals have definitely been carried on as their kids Pat and Melanie took over the family business in 1989. With their motto “the fun, friendly drop zone that cares,” once again shows their love for the community. Skydive Perris has always been a family business. This jet was also instrumental in helping to deliver supplies and evacuate the victims of hurricane Katrina in 2005. The DC9-21 is the only skydiving jet IN THE WORLD. At the time of the writing of this article, the list includes three DeHavilland DHC6 Twin Otters, five Shorts SC7 Skyvans, a Douglas DC-3, and the star of the show, The Douglas DC9-2. Speaking of planes, over the years, Skydive Perris has grown to have quite the fleet. Skydive Perris is Disneyland to skydivers from all over the world. People traveled from all corners of the globe to throw themselves out of its perfectly good airplanes. Soon, people would be getting the news about the biggest dropzone in the country.
Ultimate dropzone full#
There was already some skydivers that were jumping at this location, but the Conatser family wanted to take skydiving to a new level and In 1976, the first plane full of adrenaline junkies left its new and improved runway.

Not being a quitter, he switched his plans from a flying community to building the ultimate skydive experience.


Saying that Bennie was disappointed would be a massive understatement. Therefore, it would be impossible to build houses on them. Unfortunately, their dreams were dashed when he learned that the property that he purchased was actually a flood plain. When Bennie and Diane bought the property back in the 70’s, they had a dream of building a flying community where the homeowners could taxi straight from their house to the runway. As hard to believe as it is, Skydive Perris almost didn’t exist.
