What it’s like to go sky diving—indoors, in Yonkers
The question on the flight waiver for iFLY, an indoor sky-diving center that opened several weeks ago in Yonkers, gave me pause. It asked whether I’d ever dislocated my shoulder.
I haven’t. But I am scheduled to have shoulder surgery for a different condition this month.
Going sky diving in a vertical wind tunnel, with the wind blowing at hurricane speeds, might not be the most beneficial use of my time.
But consider the rewards! Chances are I’ll never have the opportunity to float weightless in space. And even less so to leap tall buildings at a single bound or fly Lois Lane around Metropolis on a first date.
Judging by a video taken by my colleague Jennifer Weiss, iFLY seemed as close as I’d ever get. And let’s admit it: Every child’s fantasy is to fly like Superman; to be liberated from public transportation. If my shoulder turned out a casualty of the experience, so be it.
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ENLARGEHowever, I brought my decrepitude to the attention of Horacio Gutierrez, a public-relations representative for iFLY, when he greeted me at the front door of the flying school’s sparkling facility at the Ridge Hill Mall.
He described the experience as “family friendly” and said he’d recently taken his mother flying. “She’s in her 70s,” he confided. “She’ll kill me for saying that.”
If Mr. Gutierrez’s mom could do it, I suppose so could I.
The flights, which start at $79.95, are said to be great for children’s birthday parties and corporate team-building exercises. But first you have to attend flight school. This includes watching a video and going over hand signals with Andrew Konetchy, lead instructor at iFLY Westchester.
We did that first because, once you’re in the tunnel, you can’t hear much over the roar of the fans that propel your flight. You’re also wearing a flight suit, earplugs and a helmet.
The hand signals were simple—keep your chin up, straighten your legs—because even the smallest changes in attitude (if your legs are bent or your hands cupped) can affect your control with the wind blowing at “terminal velocity.” That is the speed a person would reach in free fall while sky diving.
There is also thumbs down. I suspected that might be the most important hand signal for me to master.
“Because [you’re] generating your own wind speed,” Mr. Konetchy said, comparing the ride to actual sky diving, “you can move all around the tunnel. Jumping out of a plane you’re only going down.”
My primary concern, besides whether my health insurance was up-to-date, wasn’t falling down but flying up, and out of control, to the top of the tunnel.
From the videos it looked as if any errant movement might cause one to soar like Dorothy’s farmhouse to the top of that tornado that took her nonstop to Oz.
But Mr. Konetchy assured me I had nothing to worry about. He’d be with me the whole time, hanging onto me if necessary.
I took two flights of two minutes each. In the first one I just floated about 5 feet over the net that serves as a floor and through which the wind rushes. It was sort of fun. I can’t say I felt fully like Superman. But I felt superior to Batman, who can’t fly at all.
Mr. Konetchy assured me I did well. The proof was that he’d let go of me to fly on my own. That doesn’t happen with all first-time students, he told me.
“You were stable,” he observed. “You weren’t doing any big movements. You had a calm demeanor.”
The line between placidity and paralysis is sometimes a fine one.
During our second session he showed me how to make turns, just by altering the angle of my hands slightly.
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I, and my shoulder, were starting to feel almost cocky, until he took me for a ride to the top of the tunnel and back again. Three times.
When the flight ended, and I’d remained intact, I was more than happy to watch Mr. Konetchy perform tricks, including one where he scampers up and down the tunnel wall like Spider-Man.
However, I learned something important from the iFLY experience that Superman might want to consider. In real-world conditions, his cape is a hazard.
“It wouldn’t help you fly,” Mr. Konetchy explained. “It would just get in the way. If you were on your belly it would be floating above your head. The only time it would look cool is if you were flying down.”