As someone who works and flies at a grass airfield on which powered flying and parachuting takes place, situated on the borders of Cambs, Leics, Lincs and Northants, may I respectfully add the following (by the way, we call it Sibson - why does no-one have the courage to name places round here?):
Here the powered flying and parachuting have used the airfield together for over 30 years - we get on well and even share the bar! A number of the skydivers have learnt to fly with us and some of us have even been known to have a go at parachuting... These people are not the enemy, they just use the air in a different way to us - it would be a boring world if we all did the same thing!
The Drop Zone is over half a mile to the NW of the runways and we have no overhead join or deadside with all the circuits to the S or E. The Peterborough Parachute Centre is extremely safety concious and very strictly run.
The parachute centre's Let 410 is crewed by Ukranians who speak and understand English. It drops up to 16 skydivers from 13,000 ft. Solo skydivers can fall at up to 200mph and pull at about 2500ft, tandems pull higher at about 5000ft. They can operate as long as they are in sight of the surface and with surface wind speeds of up to 20kts. If the spot is accurate then they may exit the aircraft a couple of miles up wind. Skydivers can be a miute in freefall and up to five minutes under canopy.
Students (static line) drop from 3500ft and also use steerable square canopies these days. A Cessna 206 is used for this and occasionally high lifts as well.
We frequently have aircraft (powered and gliders) overflying the DZ/airfield at a height which puts them in the ATZ (and Wittering's ATZ just up the road). On Saturday there were 4 or 5 aircraft that flew through the overhead - I saw a Robin DR400 fly through at about 1500ft 2 minutes after the parachutists had landed - without calling up on the Sibson A/G. (We try to keep the A/G manned as much as possible, although this isn't a legal requirement).
If our skydivers get a registration they normally try and track down the pilot and have a word in their ear about safety. Most take it in the manner it is intended and are thankful for the chat, others get stroppy and try and blame everyone else. The worst of these end up getting letters from the CAA.
The scariest calls are from students on a nav ex wanting to turn overhead - what sort of instructor tells a student to plan a cross country using an active DZ as a turning point?! Cabair from Cranfield used to be the favourites at that.
Plan your flight to go around all DZs - a couple of extra minutes on your flight time is all it will take (unless you are landing there - and we love to see visitors at Sibbo - as long as the simple joining procedures are followed, as published in the Air Pilot, AFE VFR Guide, Pooley's etc).
I apoligise for the long post but this is literally a matter of life and death. Tell your friends - spread the word, let's all enjoy the airspace in whatever form we want, be it powered, gliding or skydiving - there's plenty for everyone.
Jerry