Indoor Skydiving Experience
Wind tunnels have been used for years to test the aerodynamics of cars. Then some bright spark came up with the idea of flipping one upright and jumping into the airflow - and body flying was born. The wind tunnel is a 120mph wall of air, easily strong enough to support your weight, so that you can experience freefall without the need to jump out of a plane. You’ll start off with a safety briefing from your instructor before being kitted out with your specialist flight suit. Then step into the wind tunnel with your instructor, where you’ll be lifted into the air for two incredible 120 second sessions of body flying. As a comparison, during a skydive from 10,000 feet, you would experience around 30 seconds of freefall. If you’re lucky, your instructor will jump on the flow and show you some astonishing freefall acrobatics. Your flying session will end with a debrief, and you’ll also get an e-photo of your experience, plus a DVD of your flight to take home.
Locations:
Manchester, Greater Manchester; Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire;
Ref: XFLYB
Availability: At least one weekday and one weekend date every month throughout the year. The centres close Christmas Day but operate on bank holidays.
Participant Guidelines: Min age 5. Under 18s must be accompanied by an adult. Max weight 18st. Anyone who's reasonably fit, including people with disabilities, can fly. If you're pregnant, have heart, back or neck problems or have ever dislocated a shoulder you can't fly.
Duration: Expect to be onsite for around one and a half hours, including 20 min safety briefing, kit issue (15 mins), four 60 second body flying sessions and a full debrief. The time given is your report time, please check in no more than five minutes before.
Numbers on Day: Your training may be shared in a group of up to 12. Your flights are held on a one-to-one basis with just you and your fully-qualified instructor in the wind tunnel.
Dress Code: No jewellery or collared shirts. Please wear tight-fitting lace-up trainers (not boots). If you don't wear suitable footwear you'll be required to hire and wear trainers. Jumpsuit and other equipment is provided. Lockers �1 (refundable).
Spectators: Facilities at Xscape (Milton Keynes) and the Chill Factore (Manchester) are excellent and make for a good family day out. Spectators can watch the action from the free viewing gallery.