e-mail usAfter Instructing at the old DZ in Crane (West Texas Sport Parachute Club) for 2 years. Three of us discussed changing training methods to match what was happening in the industry around the country. We found a unused air strip in Stanton, Texas and after a visited with the airport manager and the Stanton city counsel, Westex Skysports was born. Joe Wallender and Myself with the help of Jeff Brownlow and Gene Walden started operations out of the trunk of our car with 3 student rigs and no airplane. We found a lease plane out of Oklahoma and flew our first student in about May of 1984.
Shortly after, Joe was married and started a family, he sold his part of the DZ to Brent Berry and Westex kicked in to high gear. The current hangar had no sides or doors just a roof, the city did the renovations and we had a new home. We bought our first plane and very soon out grew it and had to add a second. Westex grew into a power house and was well known through out Texas and most of the country. We had several inovations to skydiving, we introduced IAF (Instructor Assisted Freefall) a term we used before the United States Parachute Association adopted it as a training method.
There was a local bust in the oilfield industry and Westex felt the pain, we closed for about a year in 1994. Brent and I regrouped and started construction on a new classroom with a fresh carpeted packing area and reopened. Westex came back to life and remained open until 2006 and then Brent moved operations to Smithville, Texas.
I have now taken Westex to the next level with a different direction and fresh look. Westex Skysports is now Skydive Westex.
We hope to move into the "Turbine World" with a Cessna 208 Caravan for the winter and hopefully from now on. We are currently in negotiation to buy Brent 182 for back up.
We would like to invite all our friends to enjoying skydiving at the new Skydive Westex
