Perris Valley Airport is a privately owned and operated

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surface ...

open to public use and located one mile (1.6 km) southeast of

Perris Perris is an old railway city in Riverside County, California, United States, located east-southeast of Los Angeles and north of San Diego. It is known for Lake Perris, an artificial lake, skydiving, and its sunny dry climate. Perris is wit ...

, serving

Riverside County Riverside County is a county located in the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 2,418,185, making it the fourth-most populous county in California and the 10th-most populous in the Unit ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, United States. It has one

runway According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft". Runways may be a man-made surface (often asphalt concrete, as ...

and is used for

general aviation General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations with the exception of commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services ...

and extensive

skydiving Parachuting, including also skydiving, is a method of transiting from a high point in the atmosphere to the surface of Earth with the aid of gravity, involving the control of speed during the descent using a parachute or parachutes. For ...

. The airport operates from dawn to dusk daily year-round.

Facilities

Perris Valley Airport has one runway: * Runway 15/33: x . Surface:

asphalt Asphalt, also known as bitumen (, ), is a sticky, black, highly viscous liquid or semi-solid form of petroleum. It may be found in natural deposits or may be a refined product, and is classed as a pitch. Before the 20th century, the term a ...

. The airport does not have a control tower, runway lights, or approach lights. The

Federal Aviation Administration The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic m ...

(FAA) classifies the northern section of runway in poor condition. FAA inspectors determined the remaining section of runway is in good condition. The northern is closed indefinitely. Aircraft maintenance and repair services are available. The airport provides aviation fuel to the general public ''only'' on an emergency basis. The airport is home to 125 ultralight aircraft and 16 conventional aircraft. Conventional aircraft include ten single engine planes, five twin engine planes, and one jet aircraft. The primary occupant is Skydive Perris. A skydiving

drop zone A drop zone (DZ) is a place where parachutists or parachuted supplies land. It can be an area targeted for landing by paratroopers, or a base from which recreational parachutists and skydivers take off in aircraft and land under parachutes. In ...

operates at the airport, and skydivers land about 50 feet from the runway.

Skydiving Parachuting, including also skydiving, is a method of transiting from a high point in the atmosphere to the surface of Earth with the aid of gravity, involving the control of speed during the descent using a parachute or parachutes. For ...

operations run from early morning to dusk daily unless limited by weather or safety factors. Skydive Perris operates a fleet of six aircraft, consisting of a

Skyvan The Short SC.7 Skyvan (nicknamed the "Flying Shoebox") is a British 19-seat twin-turboprop aircraft manufactured by Short Brothers of Belfast, Northern Ireland. It is used mainly for short-haul freight and skydiving. The Short 330 and Short 36 ...

, a Super 300

Twin Otter The de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter is a Canadian STOL (Short Takeoff and Landing) utility aircraft developed by de Havilland Canada, which produced the aircraft from 1965 to 1988; Viking Air purchased the type certificate, then restarted ...

, two Super

s, a

Pilatus Porter The Pilatus PC-6 Porter is a single-engined STOL utility aircraft designed by Pilatus Aircraft of Switzerland. First flown in 1959, the PC-6 was produced at Pilatus Flugzeugwerke in Stans, Switzerland. It has been built in both piston engine- ...

and a twin engine

DC-9 The McDonnell Douglas DC-9 is an American five-abreast single-aisle aircraft designed by the Douglas Aircraft Company. It was initially produced by the developer company as the Douglas DC-9 until August 1967 and then by McDonnell Douglas. After ...

jet.Perris Valley Skydiving: Facilities - Aircraft
Retrieved: 27 May 2009. The DC-9 is the only civilian jet

FAA The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic m ...

-certified for skydiving. Skydivers fly to jump altitude (13,000 feet) in about 12 minutes. Skydive Perris provides skydiving opportunities to beginners and experts alike. Beginners can choose

Tandem Tandem, or in tandem, is an arrangement in which a team of machines, animals or people are lined up one behind another, all facing in the same direction. The original use of the term in English was in ''tandem harness'', which is used for two ...

Accelerated Freefall {{unreferenced, date=December 2016 Accelerated freefall (AFF) (known in Canada as progressive freefall, and in Finland as Nova (''NO''peutettu ''VA''paapudotus, a literal translation)) is a method of skydiving training. This method of skydiving tr ...

skydiving. As a drop zone, Skydive Perris was small compared to the neighboring world-famous

Lake Elsinore Lake Elsinore is a natural freshwater lake in Riverside County, California, located east of the Santa Ana Mountains and fed by the San Jacinto River. Originally named ''Laguna Grande'' by Spanish explorers, it was renamed for the town of Elsino ...

drop zone until heavy rains flooded the airport in 1980 and the skydivers moved to Perris for a drop zone. Perris Valley Airport gained worldwide recognition that year when the world record night dive of 27 jumpers was organized.

Accidents and incidents

*On 4 May 1984,

Douglas DC-3C The Douglas DC-3 is a propeller-driven airliner manufactured by Douglas Aircraft Company, which had a lasting effect on the airline industry in the 1930s to 1940s and World War II. It was developed as a larger, improved 14-bed sleeper version ...

N157U of Perris Valley Paracenter was damaged beyond economic repair when the port engine lost a propeller blade on take-off, causing the engine to be torn from its mountings. There were no injuries among the two crew and 31 parachutists on board. A mandatory

Airworthiness Directive An Airworthiness Directive (commonly abbreviated as AD) is a notification to owners and operators of certified aircraft that a known safety deficiency with a particular model of aircraft, engine, avionics or other system exists and must be correct ...

had been issued concerning the propeller, but an investigation found no evidence that it had been complied with. *On April 22, 1992, a skydiving aircraft lost engine power during takeoff and crashed. The plane never climbed more than 50 feet above the runway. There were 22 on board, sixteen of whom (two pilots and 14 skydivers, including 2 Dutch nationals) died in the crash. Two other Dutch skydivers survived, as did three Americans and a South African.NTSB Chairman's speech to Parachute Industry Association
Retrieved: 27 May 2009. The

National Transportation Safety Board The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is an independent U.S. government investigative agency responsible for civil transportation accident investigation. In this role, the NTSB investigates and reports on aviation accidents and incid ...

(NTSB) attributed engine failure to aviation fuel contaminated by improper fuel handling. The pilots' response to engine failure also contributed to the crash. Apparently there was a design flaw in the Otter that facilitated accidental beta configuration of the propellers in an emergency situation. In a flight simulator, shortly after the crash, two other very experienced and current Otter pilots did the same thing as the pilot on the ill-fated flight. *On 24 May 2017, a

de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter The de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter is a Canadian STOL (Short Takeoff and Landing) utility aircraft developed by de Havilland Canada, which produced the aircraft from 1965 to 1988; Viking Air purchased the type certificate, then restarted ...

crashed on landing after a skydiving flight. The pilot and trainee pilot were uninjured but the right wing was torn from the aircraft. The aircraft was written off.https://app.ntsb.gov/pdfgenerator/ReportGeneratorFile.ashx?EventID=20170524X02223&AKey=1&RType=Final&IType=CA

References

External links

Airport Master Record (FAA Form 5010)
is also available as
printable form
(

PDF Portable Document Format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems. ...

) {{authority control Airports in Riverside County, California Perris, California Parachuting in the United States