Skydiving for the everyday chicken.

Imagine the thrill of jumping out of a tin can thousands of feet in the air with nothing but a piece of string and fabric to keep you from becoming a stain on the pavement. Now add the guarantee of not dying, and that’s exactly what I did.

I got to the Tukwila branch of iFly around 9:30 am. After checking in I went upstairs to the observation deck to watch people tumble around and try to keep their faces from hitting the glass walls. When you get up close to the glass you can see that the “fan” is actually a v-shaped vent that is at least 100 feet down. After a half an hour of anticipation they finally called me back along with the other eleven people in the group. After a brief instructional video it was time for me get suited up.

The entire getup includes a baggy flight suit, close-toed sneakers or other “tie- up shoes,” earplugs, extremely tight plastic goggles, and a snug helmet. Once I felt like I was wearing enough equipment to train attack dogs we all entered the pressure locked “flight chamber.”

After the doors sealed, the fan powered up. As I was waiting for my turn, the ways that I could die, get maimed or throw up, were increasing by the second in my head. Mainly because, personally, I do not enjoy the feeling of falling. Of course since I was so nervous, the 12- minute wait went by in an instant.

So I stepped up to the entryway and let my instructor lead me into the right position and into the wind tunnel. Surprisingly, it was amazing! I didn’t even throw up! Now, let me justify however, why I was nervous at the beginning.

First of all, the only thing between you and the fan is a wide weave metal mesh screen which looks like stepping on it would break it. Second, I had heard from my research on the interwebs that you could get pretty hurt on these things. Third, I didn’t want to look like a complete scrub.

Once I got into the tunnel, though, all my fears went away. It was an amazing one-minute experience of flying about four feet off the ground, then messing up and falling a little bit, and flying again, and falling again and so on. Then, my minute was up and I was out of the tunnel… until my second flight!

Now, since I actually was

excited to do it again, the wait felt like an hour. During my second flight, I had the option to go all the way up to the top of the tunnel if I wanted to. Now let me tell you, the tunnel is at least 20 feet high. I decided that if something did happen and I died it would be a great way to go out. But I did it and it was even better than the last flight (even though the high flight costs ten bucks extra).

After you’re done, you get a certificate and you can get the pictures they take of you (for extra of course) and go to their conveniently placed gift shop.

Overall, indoor skydiving was one of the best things I have ever done, and I would like to thank my instructor and everyone else at iFly for the great experience.

By: Micho Matuszewski