Muse back!
June 28, 2008 / Saturday
Indoor Skydiving
Well, more like "skydiving" than skydiving. There was no sky, and there was no diving. There was, however, a vertical wind tunnel blowing air up at us in our flappy suits. Whoosh, flap flap flap.
We went to iFly in Union City last Sunday for Alissa's birthday. After watching a short (and amazingly not too cheesy, as pre-flight videos go) video, we emptied our pockets, headed out of the classroom, and got suited up: knee pads, elbow pads, flappy suit, earplugs, goggles, and helmets. Then, into the wind tunnel staging area.
Because I was the last one in, I was in position to be the first one up. I held my arms up (but not out) in front of my chest and leaned forward into the tunnel. Whoosh! It was windy in there! We had an instructor who stayed in the wind tunnel and adjusted our heads, arms, and legs for optimum flight.
And then, all too soon, my minute was up. The instructor steered me toward the exit and I grabbed hold of the sides and pulled myself out. We all had another minute after the first around of "flights", which felt easier than the first. I wasn't sure if it was because we were more used to it, or if they had turned the wind speed up.
After we had all taken a turn, the instructor got a couple minutes of solo time in the tunnel with the wind speed cranked way up. He zoomed up and down and did a bunch of tricks while we watched and oohed and aahed.
We exited the wind tunnel area, returned our gear, and headed off to dinner. So what do I think about indoor skydiving? I want to say I don't think they should call it skydiving, as I imagine skydiving to be way super crazy scary fun and exciting, but I will wait until I actually go skydiving before I make that comparison. This, this vertical windtunnel flappy suit thing, this was neat. Neat as in, oh, this is novel. Or maybe, oh, I could see how it'd be neat to come back and work on being able to do nifty tricks and stuff (if it weren't so expensive).
There were signs there warning people with prior shoulder dislocations not to fly. I didn't understand why at the time, but my shoulders were a bit sore the next day, so I guess it does put some strain on them.
Next time I do this, I'm trading the wind tunnel for an airplane. ;)