Meet The Oranges!

Eric Heinsheimer: The Pilot

Eric is the guy flying us crazy skydivers up to altitude all day in either the Cessna Grand Caravan and Dehavilland Twin Otter; without him there would be no jumping!

Not only is Eric an excellent pilot with 900+ Flight hours;  commercial / instrument single & multi engine land ratings, he also has a phenomenal skydiving career!  Eric has 13,500 skydives and he spent 14 years on the US Army Golden Knights 4/8 way teams. Check out a few more of his accomplishments:

• FAI 8-way World Champion
• FAI World Cup 8-way Champion
• CISM Military 4-way World Champion
• 13-time US National Champion 4/8/16/20-way
• 300-way WR
• 357-way WR
• 8-way world record (held for 19 years)
• 1 BASE jump  Half Dome, Yosemite Valley, CA

AND he has film credits meaning you can see his stunts in the movies “Cutaway” and “Transformers 2”! Yes, we know, our pilot is a movie star!

Eric is also a 20 year US Army veteran (retired). Thank you for your services, buddy!

Why did you start skydiving? I started skydiving at the age of 17 after seeing skydivers coming down at Perris airport near where my dad flew his hot-air balloon.  He secretly signed the waiver for me swearing me to silence and to never tell my mother!  She found out about it by the following weekend as I couldn’t keep this kind of secret to myself. After that first jump I knew that I had found something special.  I felt an adrenaline rush that nothing else compared to. Soon enough I knew that this was what I wanted to do all that time.  And so it started. 

What has skydiving taught you? Skydiving has taught me many things.

It has taught me self-confidence, and to respect Mother Earth as she can be fickle if you mess with her. It’s taught me about friendships for a lifetime and beyond.  It’s taught me about humility and pride, sadness and fear, victory and defeat. It’s taught me that you can achieve anything with hard work, commitment and trust.

Why should everyone try skydiving at least once in their lifetime? Simply put from a quote that I liked from long ago in a skydiving book called “Skies Call”:

“Man Small

Why Fall?

Skies Call,

That’s All”

Why choose Skydive Orange? Choosing Skydive Orange as your skydiving destination, whether it be for your first jump or 10,000 jump, is an easy decision. It’s all about the people. The Skydive Orange community is like no other. The folks here run a great operation because they love doing what they do. Their passion is skydiving and sharing that passion with others is what makes a great drop zone.  You will see that first this as you walk in the door.

Advice for first time jumpers: Have fun, do what you love, challenge yourself, and be careful! That first step off the plane at 14,000 has proven very addicting!!