iFLY : You Fly Indoor Skydiving

Have you ever wanted to go skydiving, but you’re terrified of jumping out of a plane? Well, that’s me in a nutshell. I’d love to fall through the air, but just don’t want to deal with the heart pounding and stroke inducing process of getting out of a plane thousands of feet in the air. So, when I was gifted with an experience at iFLY Sacramento, I figured this was my shot to get all the thrills of skydiving without the immanent peril!

Mr. M and Miss L had previously gone to iFLY on their own, and they took advantage of a wonderful offer they have for return flyers. They bought me a “Spread Your Wings” Return package for Mother’s Day that was good for 4 flights for 2 people that’s about 1/2-price of the original visit cost. That way I could go… and Miss L could go again with me!

The iFLY Experience

We called and made a reservation for the 2nd class on Saturday morning, which was perfect because breakfast had settled down (I mean… no one wants to get sick in an air tube!) and it was the perfect time for lunch right after!)

Well, I won’t get too far ahead of myself here… because I was definitely a little nervous about the whole encounter.

Mr. M had told me it was a lot of fun.

Miss L was ready and rearing to go again.

And I just had no idea what to expect from the entire encounter!?!

Getting Ready to Fly

Check in was easy: tell them who we were, pay extra to upgrade to “fancy goggles” or not, then head into the waiting area. When our time approached we got suited up and I headed in for “training” – aka. watching an instruction video about the best things to do when encountering a GIANT FAN BLADE IN THE GROUND. Then, we marched into the tube and took a seat in the “waiting area” with direct access to previously mentioned GIANT FAN BLADE.

There was a boy in our group that was celebrating his birthday that day, so he had the honor of going in first. Except… well… that was pretty much the most horrific experience that poor kid had ever had in his life. I’m not sure what scared him, but he started flailing and fretting about 5 seconds into his flight and they got him out of the tube quickly… and then he ran to his parents sobbing and never came back.

The instructor went over to him to try to coax him back, but it was fruitless.

Flying at iFly

Then it was my turn! (Yay?)

I was feeling really ZEN about the whole experience right up until that point. I started worrying about what could have traumatized that kid. Was it when he looked down at the fan? Or the force of the wind? Or… OR….?!??!? Seriously why were we paying money to be tortured!!!

There was no time to deal with my complete runaway insane thoughts because the instructor was ushering me into the plastic tube of indoor skydiving fun RIGHT THEN.

I decided to push it all out of my mind, took a deep break and opted for ZEN.

I approached the door, closed my eyes for a brief second, took a deep breath, and then just sort of belly-flopped out into the fan.

And it worked. Zen TOTALLY worked.

The next 60 seconds was just fun and relaxing and easy. Nothing scary. Nothing traumatizing. Just flying and floating on the clouds.

In all honesty, the hardest part was the entry and exit to the tube… which Miss L said I did wrong each and every time. I’m not graceful on a normal day, so I’m not sure how I’m supposed to perfect my skydiving takeoff and landing without A LOT of practice.

When it was Miss L’s turn… she hopped in there like a pro. And she spun around to the top of the tube like she’s been doing this stuff since she was 4 years old. And, of course, she nailed the takeoff and landing.

We cycled through everyone in the group, and then we got the chance to fly again!

This time, we were all asked if we wanted to go up higher in the tube during our ride. It’s an “upcharge” cost, but you get blasted by even more wind and it becomes more of an amusement ride than a free fall float. At this point, I was so zen I said, “Sure!” (Mr. M later told me he was crazy impressed because he never thought I’d ASK, let alone pay extra to get thrown around in there!) Miss L took an extra high dive as well, and then our journey came to an end.

Well… that is until we bought yet another “Spread Your Wings” return package for another afternoon in the future!

iFly Sacramento: 118 Harding Blvd, Roseville, CA 95678.