This is the stuff dreams are made of—literally. Or in my case, nightmares. In Tukwila, Washington I went to a place called iFLY which allowed me to experience what most people call "the exhilarating, weightless sensation of skydiving." All without having to leap from great heights. For me though, it did require some nerves of steel as the sensation of free falling was a terrifying thought. Thus, it was one of my Bucket List items to do this decade.
In fact, I hadn't planned on doing my first scary thing from the list when I woke up Thursday morning. I was going to take a hike. You know, something safe where I could keep both feet on the ground. But Doug convinced me that it was my day to fly, seeing how it was August already and I hadn't done my "scary thing" yet this year. Time was wasting.
Before being allowed to take your first flight, training is involved, which consists of watching a video and learning hand signals. Once leaving the training room, I stepped up to an counter that reminded me of a roller skating rink. I was provided with a special one piece jump suit that had built in handles on the outside, a helmet, goggles and a set of earplugs. If I hadn't already been wearing lace up shoes, those would have been provided as well. I was told to remove all jewelry and anything from my pockets. The force is so strong in the tunnel I was told, that it could suck the cell phone from back jean pocket, travel up the backside of my jump suit and get sucked out into the atmosphere, never to be seen again. If it could do that to my cell phone, why on earth was I paying good money and walking into this storm on my own free will?
As luck would have it, I was chosen to fly first. Timidly I crept into the chamber waiting room with much trepidation; the rest of the 3:52 PM flight team right behind me. This was no simple matter. I knew I was heading into a wind tunnel that had four turbo
fans located at the top of the building, two facing one direction and the other two the opposite direction. This created two air-flows that came together and met in the middle. There was an inlet contractor that condensed and compressed the air, which created a nice, clean air column in which I was to be put inside to fly. The wind can travel up to speeds of up to 160 miles an hour.
Each flyer has a personal guide while inside the tunnel. Mine was Spencer, a fun loving guy who has clocked over 5,000 hours. Spencer told me to gently lean into the wind through the door. Then I was to burst into my flight position, which he said was like making a really big letter X with my body to create as much surface space as possible. I don't think I have ever been so happy to weigh as much as I do now seeing how surface space was now suddenly so important to have. Spencer said he was only there to keep me horizontal while suspended in the 100 mile an hour plus winds. Spencer informed me if I didn't stay calm, and wiggled too much, I could inadvertently go shooting straight up the tunnel and end up like those cell phones!
Holy Crap! What was I doing?
I had paid for two sessions, each of a one minute duration, and my first 60 seconds of terror was about to begin. Surprisingly, I was able to stay calm. Another way of looking at it is I was "scared straight." I was literally too frightened NOT to do exactly as I was told...lean in and burst out. The picture shown here was taken during my second session, one in which I was able to actually sustain myself in flight without Spencer holding onto the handle bars of my flight suit the entire time. Notice I even have a smile on my face at this point.
You can enter the wind tunnel without a guide once you have more training and pass a few tests. By the way, I have already purchased my next flight passes to do just that.
In fact, I hadn't planned on doing my first scary thing from the list when I woke up Thursday morning. I was going to take a hike. You know, something safe where I could keep both feet on the ground. But Doug convinced me that it was my day to fly, seeing how it was August already and I hadn't done my "scary thing" yet this year. Time was wasting.
Before being allowed to take your first flight, training is involved, which consists of watching a video and learning hand signals. Once leaving the training room, I stepped up to an counter that reminded me of a roller skating rink. I was provided with a special one piece jump suit that had built in handles on the outside, a helmet, goggles and a set of earplugs. If I hadn't already been wearing lace up shoes, those would have been provided as well. I was told to remove all jewelry and anything from my pockets. The force is so strong in the tunnel I was told, that it could suck the cell phone from back jean pocket, travel up the backside of my jump suit and get sucked out into the atmosphere, never to be seen again. If it could do that to my cell phone, why on earth was I paying good money and walking into this storm on my own free will?
As luck would have it, I was chosen to fly first. Timidly I crept into the chamber waiting room with much trepidation; the rest of the 3:52 PM flight team right behind me. This was no simple matter. I knew I was heading into a wind tunnel that had four turbo
fans located at the top of the building, two facing one direction and the other two the opposite direction. This created two air-flows that came together and met in the middle. There was an inlet contractor that condensed and compressed the air, which created a nice, clean air column in which I was to be put inside to fly. The wind can travel up to speeds of up to 160 miles an hour.
Each flyer has a personal guide while inside the tunnel. Mine was Spencer, a fun loving guy who has clocked over 5,000 hours. Spencer told me to gently lean into the wind through the door. Then I was to burst into my flight position, which he said was like making a really big letter X with my body to create as much surface space as possible. I don't think I have ever been so happy to weigh as much as I do now seeing how surface space was now suddenly so important to have. Spencer said he was only there to keep me horizontal while suspended in the 100 mile an hour plus winds. Spencer informed me if I didn't stay calm, and wiggled too much, I could inadvertently go shooting straight up the tunnel and end up like those cell phones!
Holy Crap! What was I doing?
I had paid for two sessions, each of a one minute duration, and my first 60 seconds of terror was about to begin. Surprisingly, I was able to stay calm. Another way of looking at it is I was "scared straight." I was literally too frightened NOT to do exactly as I was told...lean in and burst out. The picture shown here was taken during my second session, one in which I was able to actually sustain myself in flight without Spencer holding onto the handle bars of my flight suit the entire time. Notice I even have a smile on my face at this point.
You can enter the wind tunnel without a guide once you have more training and pass a few tests. By the way, I have already purchased my next flight passes to do just that.