Company Is Currently Taking A 'Temporary Pause' From Operations

Skydive Myrtle Beach is in a dispute with the Horry County (SC) Department of Airports citing what the company calls discrimination against it as an activity at the airport.

On its Facebook page, the company says that it will not be operating until the dispute is resolved.

The text of the post reads:

We originally started out with a 8 yr lease, non compete, with an agent for the County. (Ramp 66)

Prior to the county taking over, we operated for 1 1/2 years without any type of incident or negative interaction with the Dept of Airports.

In August 2013, the county took over and demanded that we sign a new "space use permit" until they negotiate a new lease or we would be removed. We did under duress. Of important note, we were never given our original lease, which we have repeatedly requested.

In Feb 2014, we filed a police report on a county employee for breaking into our secure hangar on the airfield in order to allow contractors access to electrical outlets for power.

We then requested a meeting with the County and Tower to talk about this. We learned during this meeting that the tower and the airport have their own set of operating rules that no one ever discussed with us prior to starting our operation. (Federal regs state they must alert us of all internal operating rules on the airport)

Shortly after this the Dept of Airports accused us of breaking rules that have never existed, then handed us a new "Take it or leave in 72 hrs" lease, in which they demanded 24% of our gross profits for payment. This is in violation of the Anti Head Tax Act. They then passed those rules in May 2014, in violation of the South Carolina Constitution, and Administrative Procedures Act (County Attorney stated in county council minutes that they need rules quick because they are now in litigation) that they accused of breaking 2 months earlier. We never knew that these rules were passed or even being presented. There was not a Public Notice, hearing or comment period. This new ordinance was passed within 1 month!

In the meantime they have interrupted our mail service, denied us fuel, dumped mulch in our parking lot, etc.

We have even been accused of training terrorists. That is pretty funny, due to most of the staff being active duty, former military and combat vets. And most of our jumpers are active duty military and their spouses.

The county, then filed in magistrates court to have us evicted because we no longer have a lease per the county. They said they didn't have our original lease (which we never received a copy) and our new lease had slipped through the cracks with the county council and now the permit has expired. Must be nice to be the Government and let things just slip through the cracks.

In Oct 2014, we had a meeting with the Airport Director and her staff. She presented these new "Proposed" Rules to us. When she was asked if any rules have ever existed at this airport, she answered no. She stated that these were just a draft and wanted our comments on these rules. These rules had in fact already been passed in May, 2014. They were now just revising these rules that they had secretly passed.

These rules had been written in order to end our business the minute we signed them. Ex - they have now put an imaginary box on the ground for us to land in. The line judges sit in a tower almost 1 mile away. How can a person see us from that distance landing in an imaginary box? If we don't, it is styled as a safety complaint and sent to the FAA. After 4 of these complaints we are permanently removed from the airport. Ex - the only place that they allow us to occupy is a spartan hangar with inadequate lighting, no heat or restrooms. The airport refuses any type of repair to hangar, but in rules we are required to provide adequate lighting, heating and restrooms for customers. We have requested to relocate to an available hangar or make repairs but the County refuses.

These airport rules have been in effect and revised since Jan 2015 and the airport has never enforced them. They were just recently put on their website. Prior to this they were not published. No citation under these rules have ever been issued by the County.

Recently, from their Boston Attorneys' (Yes, the county can afford to have attorneys in Boston with tax payer money) we found our original lease. Remember that the county said they didn't have it. So how did the Boston Law firm get it?

They have filed 211 allegations of safety incidents against us, which we have not seen and have not been able to make statements against. There are no sworn statements made against us. Just self serving statements by the County. We knew they were filing a few of these but not 211. The FAA has now told them that if in fact these are safety violations, that the airport needs to correct this or they will lose their grant money. Grant 19 assurance.

When the airport gave us our cease and desist letter (not the FAA), there was no authority written on the letter or even the ordinance that was violated. No court order was issued to close us down.

According to their own illegally passed rules, I am allowed to write a rebuttal and must be given a hearing by the Airport Director. I have done that and again no reply from the airport. That was 8 days ago and we have not heard a response. They gave me email notification and I returned their email notification last Friday.

We have had ZERO DUE PROCESS during this whole process. Kind of frustrating.

This is where we are at. Currently, we have our case before the court of appeals.

United States Parachute Association has provided limited advisory assistance via telephone. But has yet to engage in active assistance.

There have been over 274 paper actions in this case so far.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. The entire stack of paper we have is almost 6 feet high. That is equal to over 1/2 million in legal defense against the Government with its unlimited ability to put anyone out of business they so chose. Well, they have your tax dollars.

John Locke warned our Forefathers while drawing the Constitution "Wherever law ends, tyranny begins."

Thank you for your support. And in the famous words of Arnold "We will be back."

(Logo from Skydive Myrtle Beach Facebook page)

FMI: www.facebook.com/SkydiveMyrtleBeach?fref=nf