You Will Believe a Man Can Fly
I was in New Hampshire for a work related conference June 23-25. One of those nights the conference organizers took the conference attendees out on the town. Now, my own company often asks its employees to help entertain customers, so I was expecting something along the line of dinner and drinks followed by some local attraction of at best moderate interest. Food was certainly provided, but the entertainment was truly awesome.
We went to Sky Venture for indoor skydiving lessons. There's a ridiculously huge fan that generates winds of approximately 110 mile per hour. You move out into the middle of the wind and then float. See, here I am:
You know there's some serious breeze going on any time the wind is strong enough to suspend my 225+ pounds seven feet off the ground. You got to go in the chamber for 2 minutes at a stretch, two times per session. I got two sessions and would happily go back for more. Alas, without our partner picking up the tab I don't know that I could afford it; it is advertised at $85.00 for two minutes.
The ostensible use for this chamber is so that sky divers can try out various maneuvers and only risk only broken bones instead of death if something goes horribly wrong. At the end of every session the instructor would demonstrate his complete control over where he went in the chamber. He was able to do flips with ease, could fly to the top of the 40 foot chamber and back to the bottom in seconds, spin in circles in the middle of the room, and come crashing down within an inch of the floor only to come to a complete stop. For his finale he soared to the top and came crashing down feet first, only to land as soft as a feather in the doorway to the chamber.
As for us, we started on our stomachs and learned basic movements. Holding your position was actually quite difficult as even the slightest move can start you spinning, and over compensating can send you crashing into a wall. By the end of the night I actually had a decent amount of control over where I was going. Apparently the next step is to learn to do all the same things on your back, and then you start the advanced stuff.
According to the instructor, the chamber it is a reasonable imitation of real skydiving. It's not as cold and you don't have to worry about the oxygen level, but other than that is apparently pretty close.
They apparently only have a few ( < 5 ) such facilities in the country. The fans are very expensive to run and require a lot of start up costs to boot. But if you are afraid to skydive, this is a fun and safe way to replicate it to a certain extent.
We went to Sky Venture for indoor skydiving lessons. There's a ridiculously huge fan that generates winds of approximately 110 mile per hour. You move out into the middle of the wind and then float. See, here I am:
You know there's some serious breeze going on any time the wind is strong enough to suspend my 225+ pounds seven feet off the ground. You got to go in the chamber for 2 minutes at a stretch, two times per session. I got two sessions and would happily go back for more. Alas, without our partner picking up the tab I don't know that I could afford it; it is advertised at $85.00 for two minutes.
The ostensible use for this chamber is so that sky divers can try out various maneuvers and only risk only broken bones instead of death if something goes horribly wrong. At the end of every session the instructor would demonstrate his complete control over where he went in the chamber. He was able to do flips with ease, could fly to the top of the 40 foot chamber and back to the bottom in seconds, spin in circles in the middle of the room, and come crashing down within an inch of the floor only to come to a complete stop. For his finale he soared to the top and came crashing down feet first, only to land as soft as a feather in the doorway to the chamber.
As for us, we started on our stomachs and learned basic movements. Holding your position was actually quite difficult as even the slightest move can start you spinning, and over compensating can send you crashing into a wall. By the end of the night I actually had a decent amount of control over where I was going. Apparently the next step is to learn to do all the same things on your back, and then you start the advanced stuff.
According to the instructor, the chamber it is a reasonable imitation of real skydiving. It's not as cold and you don't have to worry about the oxygen level, but other than that is apparently pretty close.
They apparently only have a few ( < 5 ) such facilities in the country. The fans are very expensive to run and require a lot of start up costs to boot. But if you are afraid to skydive, this is a fun and safe way to replicate it to a certain extent.