More hang time at SkyVenture

For a complete change of pace after hang-gliding, we headed to SkyVenture Orlando, where you can experience the thrill of skydiving. SkyVenture is an indoor skydiving centre that gives you the sensation of freefall in a wind tunnel... you can avoid a time-consuming plane ride and an often bumpy landing while enjoying the ‘good stuff’ – an adrenaline rush without forcing yourself out of a plane a few thousand feet in the air!

Upon arrival, the instructor takes you through a quick safety session, highlighting a few key things to focus on while you’re “flying”. There are four simple hand signals we need to remember to allow us to control ourselves once in the wind tunnel. Of course, once you leap into the tunnel with the wind gusting around you at 200kph and the adrenaline starts pumping, it’s easy to forget what the signals mean (I did!) but you have an instructor by your side the entire time to coach you on technique and allow you to get the most of our your “flight”.

You’re kitted out with a fetching jumpsuit, goggles, helmet and earplugs (it’s noisy in the wind tunnel!). Once you are geared up and ready to go, the instructor takes you through the hand signals again, and then it’s time to take a literal leap of faith into the wind tunnel. Hovering above the ground with a fierce breeze rushing past you is a truly surreal experience. The instructor is right with you the entire time, their eyes fixed on you and every tiny movement you make. Once they coach you into the correct body position, you learn to use small movements to control your trajectory and the height that you’re hovering at. Directing yourself around the wind tunnel gives you a real sense of achievement, and I thought I was doing pretty well until the instructors gave us a quick demonstration of their skills after we had finished!

I’ve been tandem sky-diving before, and the SkyVenture sensation is exactly like the real thing, only better. Aside from the convenience factor, there was a greater sense of control and achievement compared with my outdoor experience – with tandem sky-diving, the instructor makes all the decisions, whereas at SkyVenture, it’s up to you to maintain the correct body position.

I took two 90-second flights within an hour (again, no plane ride means that you can really maximise your time). There are a variety of flight packages available for different budgets – starting at $49.95, most include at least 90 seconds of ‘tunnel-time’. You can buy extra time, although as a first-timer, I found that two 90-second timeslots were enough for one day... being pummelled by fast moving air is hard work!

The SkyVenture experience allows you to enjoy the rush of skydiving in a convenient, controlled environment. If you’re curious about sky-diving but not crazy enough to throw yourself out of a perfectly good plane, SkyVenture is definitely worth a visit!




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SkyVenture Orlando
Where: 6805 Visitors Circle, Orlando 32819
Web: http://skyventureorlando.com/
Phone: 407 903 1150