Pamiers: the Ariège skydiving school club lands to celebrate its forty years

The Ariège skydiving club, located on the site of the Pujols aerodrome, has just turned an important page in its history: founded by a handful of enthusiasts – some of them, soldiers of the 9th RCP – Skydive Pamiers celebrated its fortieth anniversary a fortnight ago. “A great celebration,” sums up its president, Dominique Charbouillot. And the opportunity to look back at the stages of a beautiful story.
In the early days, jumps were practiced on the “military drop zone 309”, in La Tour-du-Crieu. Then, in 1988, the installation took place in the hangars of the Pamiers aerodrome, and the purchase, the following year, of the Cessna 206, the club's first plane. Ten years later, the famous stripes, known throughout paratrooper France, appeared, the zebra, a very recognizable Pilatus, joined by a second device, in 2002. The club grew: construction of technical premises, accommodation for 26 people on site, where the club will settle in April 2009.

Three planes today

Today, the club has three planes, including two quieter Cessnas. He totals 30,000 jumps per year (read opposite). The club has become a federal performance center and hosts training in almost all the competition disciplines of the French teams. “At Ceps de l'Ariège, it is common to rub shoulders with beginners and world skydiving champions, a guarantee of the high level of our structure,” underlines the management of the club, which now has six employees. And some 2,000 members of the association: “To jump, you absolutely have to be a member of the association,” says Dominique Charbouillot. This number counts tandem baptisms, trainees who come for ten or fifteen jumps like parachutists who make 500 jumps per year. In total, we have 800 to 900 regular members.”
This year, the club took part in the cancer collection, as part of Pink October, collecting some €1,800. And plans to host, in 2025, a major sports parachuting competition. Last year, it was the French championship of artistic disciplines, which crisscrossed the Appamean sky.