Skydive City - Qatar Skydiving Show in Zephyrhills

Qatar's national military skydiving team trains for much of the year in Zephyrhills, even though most of its performance are delivered in or near its home nation. Saturday morning (9th) the Qatar Air Sports Committee Demonstration Team will put on a free show at Skydive City. We speak with the facility's co-owners, Kyle and Lauren Salvato, about the performance. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Gordon Bird here with Beyond the News. If you've been
around here a while, you know that Zephyr Hills is
a magnet for skydiving for people from around the world,
and a group of very elite skydivers is holding a
very rare public performance in Zephyr Hills this coming Saturday.
They're the Cutter Airsports Committee Demonstration Team. They typically perform

(00:20):
exclusively within that country. We have Kyl and Lauren Salvato,
the owners of Skydive City in Zephyr Hills, to talk
with us about this event and what people can expect
to see and how they can attend. Kyl and Lauren,
thank you very much for joining us on Beyond the News.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
And thank you for having us Gordon.

Speaker 3 (00:39):
We appreciate this opportunity.

Speaker 1 (00:40):
Well, first, kind of give us the background here. What
is the Cutter Airsports Committee demonstration team and why are
they honoring Zephyr Hills with a show and at that
a free show.

Speaker 3 (00:52):
Thektar Airsports Committee is a group of individuals in the
military in Kaitar that trains here at Skydive City for
almost up to six months out of the season out
of the year, and they are doing a special performance
on Saturday for us, So.

Speaker 2 (01:07):
As far as this poor performance is concerned, Basically, they
train here, as Kyle had mentioned, up to six months
out of the year for these air shows that they
perform in Qatar and also other countries around the world. Specifically,
they take this performance to their national holiday on December
eighteenth in Qatar, and now they are enabling us here

(01:33):
at Skydide City to view what they put on. As
far as the air show is performed in Qatar for
the royal family, so.

Speaker 1 (01:42):
A royal caliber performance is what we can expect to see.
Is this something that's comparable with say something you might
see the performance of the Army Golden Knights or similar
parachute teams.

Speaker 3 (01:54):
Very much so, except it's a much bigger team with pyrotechnics,
smoke and multiple aircraft involved for one demonstrations.

Speaker 1 (02:05):
How long does the show run? And you know it
sounds like there's going to be a lot going on.

Speaker 3 (02:12):
Yeah, it's one jump scheduled at ten thirty on Saturday
and it's going to be about ten to fifteen minutes. However,
the public's welcome to come early. We have a cafe
and bar on site spectator viewing area and they can
see all the activities that are going on here. We're
very family friendly drop zone and so it's not going

(02:34):
to be a very long show, but it's truly something
to be witnessed.

Speaker 1 (02:38):
Now, you mentioned the fact that the team is bigger
than a group such as the Army Golden Knights. How
many skydivers are you expecting to.

Speaker 3 (02:49):
Perform well on this specific jump. There will be a
thirty six way formation being built in which to link
up their canopies at the higher altitudes, and then they
all come and land in a very small radius after
their display of fireworks and building a large diamond shape
formation in the sky.

Speaker 1 (03:07):
So quite a large group who's going to be taking part?

Speaker 3 (03:10):
Absolutely?

Speaker 1 (03:11):
All right? Well it sounds like something it's going to be.
I mean, you see a lot if you live or
visit Zephyr Hills and you happen to look up on
a given afternoon, you're likely to see a lot in
the sky. But this time you're going to see a
lot more than usual. It appears at Skydive City. And
if you want to share any other information how people

(03:33):
can get to Skydive City, I know it's kind of
on the east side of Zephyr Hills out by the airport.
Any information people need to get there and attend and
watch this.

Speaker 3 (03:42):
Yeah, we're located on the east side of the airport
here at four two four to one Skydive Lane and
Zephyr Hills. We're on Google Maps, so you can park
in the front area the signage and people will be
directed as necessary where the spectator viewing area is. And
people can also make their own first jump if they
want to. Here we specialize in tandem skydiving and first

(04:02):
jump experiences.

Speaker 1 (04:04):
All good to know and very very exciting and I'm
sure it's going to be quite the event. Kyl and
Lauren Salvato, the co owners of Skydive City in Zephyr Hills,
talking about a very special performance on Saturday by a
demonstration team from Qatar. And thank you both for joining
us on Beyond the News.

Speaker 3 (04:22):
Thank you goodon. We appreciate your time.