A red 1970s cabin, a roll-up jump door and a turbo that climbs out of high country. The Cessna that flies MyDive jumpers to places that aren't dropzones.
You see the stripes first.
A white fuselage with a red band running nose to tail and a sweep of gold riding above it. Tall white registration letters across the red. On a winter ramp in Colorado, with Longs Peak sitting behind the tail, it looks like an airplane from another decade that never got around to changing its paint.
Then someone slides the door open, and you find out the outside was the quiet part.
The inside is red too, and it’s original. Bright red 1970s shag and leather — the kind of interior nobody would specify today and nobody who climbs into it forgets.
Everything not needed for skydiving has come out. The passenger seats are gone and a padded floor runs back from the panel. There’s a grab handle bolted above the door, and the jump door rolls up into the fuselage rather than swinging out, so the opening is clear when you go.
You climb in, sit on the floor with your back to the panel, and from that point on the airplane is just engine noise and red.
The cabin is half the answer.
The other half is less dignified. The maintenance shop had a dog. The dog had a strong and repeated interest in the airplane’s tires. Somebody called it the Red Rocket, and the name stuck.
The Red Rocket carries five jumpers plus the pilot.
The 206 is one of the most familiar jump planes in the sport, for good reasons. The high wing stays above you at exit, the door gets five people out quickly, and the airframe is simple and tough enough for the kinds of strips MyDive works from. You’ve probably jumped one before.
Five a load sets the rhythm of a retreat. A MyDive retreat is capped at 15 jumpers; a typical group is around ten, which means you fly every other load. You exit, fly your canopy, land and pack, and by the time your rig is closed the airplane is coming back for you. That gap is built in. It’s what lets a group jump all day without anyone sprinting to make a call.
It’s a Cessna TU206G — the turbocharged version, and the turbo is the part that matters.
A normally aspirated engine loses power as the air thins, and a lot of the places worth jumping start high before you’ve even taken off. Turbocharging packs air back into the engine, so it keeps climbing where an ordinary 206 starts to struggle.
Altitude depends on the location, the airspace, the weather and the operational plan for that site. At Canyonlands that means jumps from 17,500 ft MSL, which at that field elevation is roughly 12,500 ft above the ground you’re landing on.
Supplemental oxygen is available for every person aboard.
Most jump planes live at one dropzone. They fly the same pattern over the same landing area every weekend, and that’s exactly what they should do.
The Red Rocket travels. Every MyDive retreat and private skydive is built around a place that isn’t a dropzone, and none of those places come with an aircraft. So it flies to them — positioned at whichever airport makes sense for the landing area, flying loads for as long as the trip runs, then home to Vance Brand Airport in Longmont, Colorado.
It has already done the hard version of that. The Red Rocket flew into and out of Black Rock City Municipal Airport and ran 18 jump loads during Burning Man. A temporary airport in the desert, a week of operations, eighteen loads. The airplane isn’t a brand prop. It’s what the operation runs on.
Ryan flies every MyDive load — a commercial pilot and CFI with more than 400 hours of jump pilot time.
The hours aren’t the selling point so much as how the operation is built. When the weather turns, or the airspace changes, or the landing area isn’t what it was yesterday, the person who has to change the flying is the same person who planned it and walked the landing area. Nothing gets lost between a planner and a pilot.
An airplane that travels is only as good as where you take it. Most of the places this one has been started with somebody saying I’ve always wanted to land there.
Have a place in mind? Tell us about it →
What kind of plane is the Red Rocket?
A Cessna TU206G — a turbocharged 206 set up for skydiving, with a roll-up jump door and an original red interior.
How many skydivers fit in the Red Rocket?
Five jumpers plus the pilot.
How high does it fly?
It depends on the location and the operation. At Canyonlands, jumps run from 17,500 ft MSL — about 12,500 ft above the ground.
Who flies it?
Ryan, a commercial pilot and CFI with more than 400 hours of jump pilot time. He flies every MyDive load.
Where is it based?
Vance Brand Airport in Longmont, Colorado (KLMO). It travels to retreats rather than staying at one dropzone.
Where can I jump from it?
On MyDive retreats and private skydives.