On Jan 29th 2025 twelve ASIG and ASA members and guests met at La Famiglia Restaurant in Mesa. The speaker of the evening was Hugh Funk from Complete Parachute Solutions that owns and runs the operations from Bishop Airfield (1AZ0) that is less than 5 miles from Estrella Sailport. They have been more active and we learned that Serene Airport, a desert dirt strip airport 10 miles WSW from Estrella Sailport also has military operations including parachutes and helicopters operating there even at night and early morning. Coolidge Muni is another center for their parachute operations.
Lufthansa is also using the airport for touch and go flights with standard radio calls.
The aircraft used for jumping include the Sherpa, Skyvan, and Carribou.
NOTAMS are issued, sometimes for long periods assuming daily operations. They also issue short term NOTAMS and when they are in operation, Jason Stephens is given that information. The formal NOTAMS are claiming 5 nautical miles, but they attempt to avoid the little ridge, a.k.a. Seven Mile Mountain, and the area that glider training takes place. NOTAMS searches are found on ForFlight and https://notams.aim.faa.gov/notamSearch/nsapp.html#/ . Search for NOTAMS for 1AZ0.
There are basically two types of operations performed at Bishop Airfield: High-altitude high-opening (HAHO) and high-altitude low-opening (HALO). The HAHO drops practice flying their parachutes to the drop zone (DZ) from 10 or more many miles away. These are always done very early in the morning so as not to interfere with commercial and general aviation. With HALO drop, there is little chance of seeing the sky diving parachutists in sky dive mode.
The radio communication on their CTAF, 130.475 MHz
After Takeoff the aircraft gives an advisory to DZ on CTAF. You may hear something like:
Aircraft- “Bishop DZ, Sherpa 1, 12 jumpers to the top” DZ- “Sherpa 1, DZ copies 12 jumpers, winds 12 kts”
Notices given in two minute intervals will be something like this:
Aircraft- “Rainbow Valley, Sherpa 1 is up off Mobile for jump ops, jumpers will be exiting at 12,500’ in 10 mins, exercise caution.”
Or in the case of an offset HAHO jump:
Aircraft- “Rainbow Valley, Sherpa 1 is up off Mobile for HAHO jump ops, jumpers will be deploying at 12,500’, 270 and 10 nm from Mobile in 10 mins, exercise caution.” (Aircraft may orbit open canopies until the group descends below 8’000 alg)
As the jumpers are in the air the aircraft calls jumpers away to DZ on CTAF
Aircraft- “Bishop DZ, Sherpa 1, 12 jumpers away”
Bishop DZ- “ Sherpa 1, Bishop DZ, looking for 12 canopies”
As the jumpers approach Bishop DZ they give canopy count
Ex- DZ- “Sherpa 1, 12 good canopies over Bishop”
The aircraft descends to Mobile/Bishop making standard calls.
The wind direction, when significant, dictates that they will come in from upwind and use a pattern to land upwind at the LZ. If you are uncertain of Bishop Airfield operations, fly past the airport on the downwind side. The approach to the airport will be within a “V” shape cone open to the upwind side. The drop zone is currently to the north of the runway, but this will change sometime soon to the south of the runway. There is a “┬” shaped figure to be on the LZ with the long leg of the “T” is in the upwind direction. They announce operations on 130.475 MHz (or 130.47 if you only have two decimal places on your radio) and on some other frequencies. We have requested that parachute operations be announced on 122.9 MHz, the UNICOM for other airports in the region (E68, Ak Chin and Hidden Valley). Even if you have not heard an announcement, it is better to go to 130.475 MHz to ask about parachute operations at Bishop. No response probably means they are not in operation but in case your radio is not getting out, use other precautions like looking for aircraft and staying down wind of the DZ.
Landouts at Bishop are for emergencies only and Hugh is a good contact person to get permission to recover the aircraft if an emergency landout occurs there. Hugh’s cell phone number is 817-913-9523.
Aircraft you might see used for parachute operations at Bishop Airfield:
Sherpa
Skyvan
Carribou
Arizona Soaring Association 