About TAKE OFF

Foundation 1992

TAKE OFF Fallschirmsport was founded in 1992 as a sole proprietorship and consisted of 1 full-time instructor (the owner), 1-2 freelancers, approx. 5 parachutes, a caravan - and, due to the lack of an existing telephone line, a "mobile" C-network telephone weighing approx. 3 kg - and off we went.

At that time, the airfield consisted of a narrow, short runway made of concrete slabs and two caravans - the left caravan was the flight school and tower - the right caravan was the parachute school. We jumped out of an old AN2 - the world's largest biplane with a huge 9-cylinder radial engine, 1,000 hp and 30 litres capacity. It took us a good half hour to reach 2,500 metres, with a roar that felt like it reached all the way to the national border. We achieved a total of 713 jumps in the first year. Today, this is often the number of a single week.

Expanding the infrastructure & increasing the number of jumps

The next important step was the chartering of a Pilatus Porter, a modern turboprop aircraft for up to 10 jumpers. Now they could finally reach the world's standard sport jumping altitude of 4,000 metres in just 18 minutes. In addition, a container facility for the schools' offices, a tower, catering facilities and, instead of green plastic containers at the roadside, proper toilets and showers were now built on the airfield - a previously unknown luxury. The number of jumps promptly increased from 713 in the first year to 6,200 in the second and 9,300 in the third year.

Foundation of TAKE OFF Fallschirmsport GmbH 1995

In the winter of 94/95, the owner Ralf Heine and the three previous employees Maggy Nagel, Jürgen Mühling and Uwe Reichert joined forces to form TAKE OFF Fallschirmsport GmbH. At the same time, at the beginning of 1995, the GmbH acquired rainbow Design, a ready-made parachute company specialising in the parachute sports sector, and moved it from West Germany to another container facility at the Fehrbellin airfield.

Approval as a technical parachute company

After approval as a technical parachute company at the beginning of 1996, two parachute technicians/class 5 examiners were employed and trained.

From 1992 to the end of 1998, aircraft from other owners were chartered to carry out the jumping operations. At the beginning of 1999, the GmbH finally invested in its own modern turbo-prop aircraft for 18 passengers (Cessna Grand Caravan C 208B / 1.2 million EUR / registration number D-FUMP). In this context, the small aviation company Air Lift GmbH was acquired to operate the aircraft.

We are bursting at the seams

At the time, the container house was only intended as a provisional solution. But as it is with provisional arrangements. TAKE OFF continued to grow, and the number of guests at the airfield also increased steadily. The rainbow Design clothing company was also doing well and had in the meantime moved to the Fehrbellin industrial estate in order to be able to work properly. Slowly, the hut threatened to literally collapse on us. Something for which the one or other party was certainly not blameless. The increasingly less discreet notices from the building authorities also made it clear: it was really time for a new building of our own!