Indoor Skydiving at iFly Orlando

Sometimes you have to think if you are willing to take some risks, or if you are going to enjoy something on the extreme, like Skydiving. A great option is doing Indoor Skydiving, which is the same feeling with much less dangers involved. And we tried it in our trip to Orlando Florida at iFly Indoor Skydiving.

Indoor Skydiving is a flight experience in which, instead of a free fall from a plane, you are being propelled by a turbine below and you are flying. Since there is no free fall, you don´t use any parachute of any kind, but instead you use your body and a protective garment and you are good to go.
Since the creation of Indoor Skydiving venues, paradivers can train in a more controlled environment, and also a new sport called Body Flight has been born.

So in this article, I will tell you about my experience at iFly Orlando Indoor Skydiving:

To get things started you will be in a waiting room where you can see others fly and start getting pumped up. That same waiting room is for non flyers to wait for you and take some pics.

Ever since I came back home my friends and family have asked me some questions about the whole flying thing, and some may be useful as a FAQ:

• Age Limitations: The venue site says recommended for people 3 to 103 years old. I can say for sure there was a little girl around 8 or 9 years old in the group that flew with us and she rocked it. So it is indeed kid friendly.
• Shape or Conditioning: It is not recommended for pregnant women, for people with back, neck, shoulders or heart issues. Weight limit is 255 pounds. (We are all weighed before entering. At first I thought it was to see if we are over the limit. I get pretty damn close to the limit at my 228; but then they also asked my girlfriend, who is 110, so then I realized it is to set the wind force for each person´s flight).
• Previous Knowledge: You need none. Of course the more flights you do, the better you become, and the more things you are allowed to try. But we never did anything like this and we managed to do our flights pretty well.
• Dresscode: You are provided with a special suit, a helmet, goggles and earbuds. I recommend, if you have long hair to have it with a non metal band. Also, I recommend closed toes sneakers.

The iFly Indoor Skydiving Experience Review

You will have to try and allocate at least two (maybe three hours) to the overall thing. Getting there from wherever in Orlando you are, parking, signing the forms and selecting extras of you flight package. Then you will be in the waiting room watching the group previous to yours doing their flights. That´s when you will be getting pumped up and ready to go.

After that you go to the classroom where your instructor will teach you some basics, mainly body positioning and the signs you need to do in order to communicate during the flight. It´s a twenty minutes prep talk that gets you set up for your flight.
Then you do the wardrobe change and you are good to go.
One thing important: Empty your pockets! There are free of charge lockers for you to put anything you need to. Anything else you will definitely drop while on the flight.

Once you are all dressed up and you gear put in, you do last second check and you enter the tube. you will be seated with all your group (8-10 people), and you will be going in one at a time, you do your two minute flight, and get out, then the next round and so on and so forth depending on how many rounds you purchased.

Flight Extras: You can purchase a few things.

The Extra Flight: As many extra two minutes runs as you want.
The Photos: For 4 bucks each you can purchase a total of 8 pictures taken during your flight.
The Videos: For 4 Bucks apiece you can purchase the videos of your flights.
The Flight with the instructor: This one is the winner. If you can only buy one of the extras, do this one. For the last twenty seconds of your second flight, the instructor grabs you from the suit handles and takes you up, up and away forty or fifty feet in the air, and then you both drop fast a couple of times. It is an incredible feeling.

Is the iFly Orlando Indoor  Skydiving experience worth it?

My answer is a resounding YES!

It is really one of those things that anyone could add to the bucket list. I am very happy I got to cross it out of mine.
If you are in Orlando, take your time and do it. You won´t regret it.

Some closing remarks and data:

You will get a certificate of your accomplishment. This also goes to your record so if you want to be a regular, you can end up going through different levels up to being able to fly head down and all.
In my case I got the first certificate which says that I completed the theory training, flew in the tunnel with minimum assistance and reached a stable position with my body. In the picture I´m getting my certificate from Striker, who was my instructor, and did a heck of a good job.

There´s a merchandising store (As is in every single place in Orlando) so you can get some souvenirs if you like. (In our case we preferred alloting budget to the experience though).

The location of iFly Orlando is right in the heart of it, on I-Drive right in front of Wet ´n´ Wild and has free parking.

For non english speakers, don´t let the language be a barrier for you not to enjoy it. They will take their time trying to understand you and you understanding them, it is too good an experience to let a little thing like speaking get in the way.

If I don´t go to Orlando, can I Fly anyways? iFly has several locations, even though Orlando´s was the first, they are now located in Denver, Loudoun, Chicago, Oklahoma, San Diego, Kansas City, Portland, Houston, Dallas, Austin, Seattle, San Francisco, Hollywood, New Hampshire, Sacramento and San Antonio in the United States; Brasilia and Sao Paulo in Brazil; England, Singapore, Dubai, Canada, Australia and Russia.

Have you ever tried Flying or Indoor Skydiving? Let me know your experience in the comments below. Also, follow me on Twitter for more reviews and Travel Tips.

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