PETE LONNON PROFILE VIDEO

Inside the mind of a pilot, chief instructor and dropzone owner.

My name’s Pete Lonnon, and I’m the chief instructor and owner of Skydive Jurien Bay. I’ve been flying for about 28 years. I’ve done a lot of flying throughout outback Australia and a lot of bush flying, and I also have well over 2000 hours flying skydivers for at least 25 years of that.

Full Transcript:

My name’s Pete Lonnon, and I’m the chief instructor and owner of Skydive Jurien Bay. I’ve been flying for about 28 years. I’ve done a lot of flying throughout outback Australia and a lot of bush flying, and I also have well over 2000 hours flying skydivers for at least 25 years of that.

I’ve always enjoyed flying. It’s a toss up, what I like best, either skydiving or flying. Being able to do both is a pretty good privilege.

When I was a kid the last thing I ever thought I’d be was a pilot or a skydiver, and to be honest, I’d never really dreamt of being a jumper or a pilot until I actually started skydiving.

Skydive Jurien Bay, it’s a family business, I run it with my partner, Christine, and we’ve got two kids, Brett and Bronte. Brett has now just turned 12, and Bronte’s 10, and they’ve been with us all the way. Normally the average, or the earliest age you can go skydiving is 12, but with special permission from the Australian Parachute Federation, my children were lucky enough to start jumping at six.

It’s very peaceful up there. You don’t really think about anything else that’s worrying you in life. It’s a very relaxing and very rewarding feeling, and a good sense of accomplishment when you finish flying.

If anyone is really interested in learning to fly or even learning to jump, especially, I would suggest that it is a wonderful thing to do in your life, it does change your life if you take skydiving up full time, but there’s always someone there to help you along the way, and especially with skydiving, if you want to travel the world and you’re a jumper, there’s always a drop site anywhere in the world that will welcome you as a friend, so that opens up the whole world of travel to you.