Have any of you done this?
I did just this past winter for a birthday party. The guy who was hosting the party was a bigtime skydiver and loves going to the indoor facility because he can get the freefall practice without having to get in plane and pack gear and all. I’ve jumped out of planes before but all mine were static line so freefall was a new experience.
I recall it was quite a bit pricey but they do have packages.
I’ve only done the outdoor version (many years ago) but I want to try it out. I had a skydiving friend who did this in FL & said it was great.
If you want to try it too, there’s a bonus for going with someone else, same price but includes a video. PM me if interested. It could be the first in-the-air dopefest!
website
You’re in the area? Cool. I’m between contracts at the moment but when I get some cash flow again, which should be soon, maybe I’ll try it. I don’t like to spend on things like this when I’m not working.
Did indoor skydiving once several years ago. A fun treat. I did a true skydive once a long time ago, but it was static-line, so involved no freefall. During the indoor skydive, I found that it was very difficult to control my movement. There was an instructor in there with me, and he went hands-off a few times; I eventually figured out how to turn, but I never figured out how to deliberately move fore/aft, so I just kinda bumped against the glass or started wobbling around until he grabbed me again to stabilize me.
I recommend going with a group of maybe a half dozen; you can all go through the training together, and then take turns watching each other in the chamber, so it becomes much more of an event.
Damn, I’m going to be down there over Memorial Day weekend, but I have no chance of finding time to do that.
I’d love to try it sometime and hopefully my job travels will take me somewhere close to where I can.
But in the meantime a little inspiration.
I just visited the site ( Thanks Spiderman) and did the “Find a Location”.
The nearest one has a tag “Now Hiring”.
They are looking for both “STEM Instructors” and “Flight Instructors”.
Neither job requires flight experience.
They both push “Sell our services”.
Sounds dangerous.
I have a FB friend telling me not to do it because of Jim O’brien (a local newsman who died in a skydiving accident). This is of course completely different.
LOTS of fun!!!
I did this 15 years ago, (at a place in a tourist beach town, and which has since gone out of business.)
It was bit different, though—much smaller. The building was much narrower, and looked liked a grain silo. There was something like a jet engine placed under the “floor”. The floor itself was just a narrow ring, like a path, on a ledge around the circumference of the building; And the huge hole in the middle was covered with a net, through which the jet engine blasted the airstream upwards.
I stood on the ledge, jumped into the airstream, and soared like a bird. FUN!!!
The instructor floated alongside, and pushed my body around a little to keep me in the center of the airstream, which helped .
I highly recommend it, and I’d love to do it again.
I tried it a couple of times, about 20 years ago when I was skydiving a lot. It is a good training method- and a lot of fun too. Here’s an old low-quality video of me flying in a portable outdoor version, along with some friends. I’m the last to go (the guy with the dark hair and beard wearing the light blue helmet). That’s the instructor at the beginning, showing off. In the outdoor version, if you slide off the column of air in the center, down you come (which we did, repeatedly). They had pads all around to catch you so there was little chance of serious injury.
The modern indoor facilities have no pads, the entire circular flight area is in the column of air. The indoor facility I tried 20 years ago was like the portable outdoor one; it had a column of moving air in the center and pads around the perimeter so you needed to stay in the middle or down you come. It teaches a skydiver to fall straight down and not slide around the sky, which is important if you’re making formations with other skydivers. Midair collisions can be bad.
The best advice I can give you if you try it is to relax (easier said than done, I know). If you’re tense you will tire out faster. Arch your back (being flexible helps) and try to keep your knees and elbows bent at 90 degree angles most of the time, to “hover” in the center. To move forward stick your feet out. To move backward stick your arms out. To turn left stick your right arm out, to turn right stick your left arm out. You’re pushing off the column of air to maneuver.
Enjoy yourself, it’s a blast!
My daughters and I did it at the iFly in Dallas last year. It was a blast but it doesn’t last long and is not cheap. The facility was very well run and they gave us some classroom training before going into the chamber. None of us had many problems floating in the chamber like we were supposed to but some other people that went before us never could quite get the hang of it. I opted for bonus time with an instructor that got in with me and took me up about 30 feet and helped me do spins. I thought that was well worth it.
So what does it mean to not “get the hang of it”? Do you bounce of the walls or something?
[quote=“davidm, post:14, topic:755025”]
So what does it mean to not “get the hang of it”? Do you bounce of the walls or something?[/]
You have to maintain a specific pose to even get off the ground. Some people couldn’t maintain it so they would rise up a few feet, screw up the pose and then fall right back down again over and over. The chamber doesn’t just blow you up in the air like a ping pong ball. You have to spread your arms and legs out, arch your back and keep your head up to present enough surface area to get sufficient lift. It isn’t that difficult to learn the basic pose but some people panic even though I didn’t think it was a scary experience at all.
Tell them you want to do this
Is that using an extra powerful fan or something?
That person certainly isn’t using the pose Shagnasty described.
They can control the RPMs on the fan, so yes, it’s turned up really high for the experienced flyers. And they have put in a lot of time to reach that level of expertise.
Right. Indoor skydiving is a sport in its own right and some people can get really good at it but it takes time like any other sport. The instructors at iFly told me that free chamber time is an important part of their total compensation but they only get a (very) few minutes on their own in it per shift because that thing is really expensive to run.
Here is a compilation video showing what it is like for several first-timers. They certainly aren’t dancing in the air and a few of them are struggling just like I saw. This is the same iFly facility that I went to in Dallas.
I give iFly 5 stars for the overall experience and I have done other things like jump off the top of the Stratosphere in Las Vegas (also 5 stars). However, it is short and expensive. I would recommend it for a special occasion but almost anyone in decent health can do it and it is not scary in the least. You really do get to (try to) fly for a few minutes and it is very memorable and that is what is truly important. However, I think my next flying or jumping experience is going to be true skydiving from a real airplane. There is no way to fail at that. You are hitting the ground one way or another.