By VERNON ROBISON
Moapa Valley Progress
Their long term goal is a grand one: to put Overton on the map as one of the top locations in the world for professional skydiving.
But for now, Sammy and Iva Vassilev are content to start small with a family-run operation out of an existing hangar at Perkins Field Airport.
After four years of gaining permits and approvals, the Vassilevs are nearly ready to start operating their skydiving tour business out of the Overton airport. If all goes as expected, the jumps should begin within the next couple of weeks.
“We had to fight hard to get everything in line to be able to operate out of Overton,” said Sammy Vassilev in an interview with the Progress, conducted in his Perkins Field hangar alongside a small, four-seater, aircraft fully equipped for skydiving.
Vassilev explained that everyone from the Department of Aviation officials to the County Building Department staff had been very supportive of the idea of their business operating out of Overton airport. After all, Perkins Field has long been an under-utilized aviation facility amid a very busy travel region.
“It is just that the airport was not set up to be used as a commercial operation,” Vassilev explained. “So it took us some time to get through all of the legal requirements for us to do this.”
Now most of those requirements have been met and the Vassilevs are ready to take off at full throttle. They know that the demand for a full service drop zone in this region is high and they expect business to quickly get off the ground.
“Once we are up and running, it is our intention that every day when you look up; you will see colored parachutes coming down,” Sammy Vassilev said. “This will be the only full service drop zone within a sixty mile radius of Las Vegas. So we expect things to be busy very soon.”
By ‘full service’, Vassilev means it will have the ability to accommodate everyone from the beginner unlicensed jumper, who must jump in tandem with a licensed professional, all the way up to the professional athlete who competes in national and international events.
The facility will be able to provide full training for people wishing to become licensed. And it will provide team building exercises for corporate clients.
But perhaps even more significant for the local community is the fact that Sammy and Iva have their sites set on the world championship professional skydiving circuit.
The Vassilevs are well connected in that world of championship skydiving. Sammy is a second generation skydiver. Both of his parents were professionals who competed internationally.
He began skydiving when he was 15 years old. By the age of 17, he was a professional level competitor and licensed skydiving instructor.
Vassilev moved to the Chicago area of the U.S. with his family when he was 16. He moved to Las Vegas in 1995.
He specialized as a competitor in the extreme sport of Sky Surfing, a particularly difficult type of skydiving where the diver wears a board on his feet and performs surfing-style aerobatics during freefall.
In 2005, Sammy and his wife returned to Bulgaria where he operated his own skydiving operation on the coast of the Black Sea for about three years. After that they came back again to Las Vegas.
The Vassilevs also own and operate Skydive TV, an online television network covering the professional skydiving sport in an Olympic-style format. The station, which is located online at www.skydive-tv.com has 23 million viewers worldwide in 163 different countries, according to Vassilev.
With Overton becoming the home base for Skydive TV, the Vassilevs plan to promote Overton as a world-class location for skydiving competition.
Sammy explained that a typical championship competition brings 500-1000 athletes to the drop zone, along with their support crews and families. The events usually last as long as two weeks, so the competitors usually set up a homebase in the community. This home base can serve as a jumping off point for other tourism activities while they are here, Sammy said.
“It will bring huge benefits to the community,” he continued. “It brings a lot of business to town. These people will need hotel rooms, restaurants, grocery stores and many other services.”
Sammy compares Overton to the small town of Ottawa, Illinois which is located just south of Chicago. Ottawa is probably the largest skydiving drop zone in the country, he said.
“It is a small town, but the whole community is centered around, and supported by, jumpers,” he said. “They are renting homes and apartments during the season there. Business is always moving. It brings huge amounts of money to the community.”
But those well-known eastern skydiving centers are only in operation for a portion of the year, Sammy said. They all have to close down completely through the cold months of winter; and everyone goes back home during that time.
“We, on the other hand, would be able to stay open and operating all year long,” Sammy said. “That is a huge advantage for this community.”
As business grows, the couple said that they will be looking for other local businesses and individuals that might provide services and activities to their customers when they are not making their jumps.
“We want to cooperate with local businesses and tour operators, and any other service providers, in creating package deals for these visitors that we will bring to the area,” Iva said.
Those activities could include ATV rides, para-gliding, boating and fishing expeditions on Lake Mead, horseback rides, as well as farm visits and produce stands, Iva said.
“There is so much that this community can offer,” she added. “It really is the best place within an hour of Las Vegas. It is an unknown jewel which we plan to promote heavily.”
The couple already has plans in the works to expand their facilities as the business grows. They have drawn up a concept for a huge 125’ x 125’ hangar building to be constructed on the south end of the airport, adjacent to the street there.
The building would include a business area where visitors and local residents alike could come and watch the skydiving operations. It would include a restaurant, bar and other shops. It would be family friendly and locals would be encouraged to come and visit, bring their kids, watch airplanes land and take off, and see skydivers come in, Sammy said.
The other part of the building would be the hangars for airplanes as well as state-of-the-art training areas for instruction and preparation of the skydivers for their jumps.
The couple plans to use local contractors in building the facility when the time comes. They will also use the local workforce, especially youth, as they need to hire additional help in the process.
After such a long road in getting their permits and approvals to start business, the Vassilevs are excited and optimistic to get started.
“Our goals are lofty,” Iva admitted. “But we know that we have to take just one step at a time. So we are starting small right now. But we will keep our eye on expanding when the time is right.”
