Not bike related - vertical wind tunnel

[Pau11y]

Anyone's been? Feedback on costs and fun factor please. I wanna go sky diving so bad and the only part I'm really after is the freefall. I want to get good enough to eventually do a real jump and perhaps get into one of those wing suits later on.

[dainbramage]

It's expensive, but it's a blast. Go fly in the tunnel, then go learn how to skydive. I took a gf to the tunnel then for her first tandem on the same day, it was a good process to try the sport. I have video of the tunnel on my dumb website, videoextremes.com, if you search hard enough it's on there somewhere. I hope you have alot of cash to spend. Skydiving is the most expensive sport going, but it's also one of the funnest. You may be after the freefall, but flying small parachute's is comparable to driving a ferrari.

[Pau11y]

Do they still allow you to solo (not on rip cord - edit: static line) on your first jump or has it all gone to tandems on the first jump?
As for the tunnel, I thought it was like $40.00 or so for an hour?
As for flying a small chute, I had a buddy who was big into jumping and she filled me in on that. She also confirmed your cost ideas... $3K for a chute and it's good for 800 jumps, 500 on the safe side...or somfin like that. She also said it's good to learn how to pack your own chute, but I'd imagin that comes later in the game...

Edit: Got the price. All I can say is HOLY CRAP! I was off by more than an order of a magnitude! Maybe there's a student deal I can hit up 'cause there's NO WAY I can do it at $650.00/hour.

[dainbramage]

When you go to the the tunnel, you'll be in there with a bunch of people. You won't be paying for a full hour, a full hour would make you feel as if somebody beat you up. Static line is the cheap way to learn how to jump, but not all drop zones offer it. I did it that way, and got off cheap with plenty of stories to boot.

[LordOpie]

$650/hr for everyone in the tunnel? So if there's like 10 people for 30 minutes, would that be $33 each?

The tunnel is like 15 minutes from my apt, so I really wanna try it.

[Pau11y]

Hey LO, what do you say about us getting a group together? I'll find out more on Mon or Tues what the costs are and post it here. I've already e-mailed them.

[Pau11y]

Here's the prices. Not a terrible as I first thought, but still steep:

http://www.skyventurecolorado.com/packages/packages.php

[Beast]

oh man, this would be sweet - I'd also like to huck myself off the top of lookout. A friend looked into the latter and found that it wasn't incredibly expensive to do.

[Ascentrek]

[QUOTE=Pau11y]Do they still allow you to solo (not on rip cord) on your first jump or has it all gone to tandems on the first jump?
As for the tunnel, I thought it was like $40.00 or so for an hour?
QUOTE]

I learned to skydive (only did it twice) in two phases.

The first was solo... but actually just a jump. The instructor held the cord as you left the strut of the aircraft. Solo, yes, but instructor assisted, yes.

The second was an Instructor Assisted Jump. Two people guide your flight on either side. If you don't pull the cord, they will.

Was mostly a blur, but I remember most of it all after the chute opened. That part of it was fun.

I've always wanted to go play in one of these vertical air tunnels. I'm game for it with everyone else. Seems expensive, but fun at the same time. It is costly.

[Pau11y]

Sweet, 4 of us! I'll call tomorrow after my lab to see if there are any student discounts, atleast for the Beast and I. I can also get a better idea of rates - split amongst a group of however many...

[Mtnrider]

I've jumped once it was a tandom jump, that was a trip. I want to skydive again solo next time!

[Pau11y]

This is eventually what I want to do

http://www.bird-man.com/video/matt.wmv
more bird-man.com video
http://www.bird-man.com/include/n_video_windtunnel.php?d=8

Here's some more info on wingsuits
http://www.troyhartman.com/the_wing_suit.htm

HAHA! There's some crazy Frogs trying to land in a wingsuit w/o a chute! Edit that, not a frog, he's full blown US.
http://www.gofastsports.com/images/sportszone/GoFastWingMovie.wmv

And these crazys are strapping small jet engines onto their feet for sustained leveled flight! Absolutely NUTZ! daVinci has NOTHING on these crazy bastards!

http://www.bird-man.com/include/n_video_windtunnel.php?d=6

Ok, called SkyVentures Colorado (www.bodyflight.net/skyventure_co.html) and here's the rates:
http://www.skyventurecolorado.com/packages/packages.php#levels

Me thinks the $180/$165 off peak one is prob the best bang for the buck as far as learning how to fly in a tunnel, and then progress to skydiving.

[Hungry_Hank]

i've been to a vertical windtunne. i went to one out at lake elsinore in socal. it ended up not being that expensive because we went with 10 people, so the 300 go split up to 30 each, or something like that. however the one we went to belonged to the skydiving club out there, so it is practically impossibleto get time unless you are in the club or know someone who is.. i dont know if that is an issue for you though.

however, the tunnel is amazing. it had wire mesh below you so an instructer could just wak around on that and help you out. but by my second time in the tunnel i was doing spins and fannning out and fun stuff like that. it's a really great experience and i really wanna do it again..

[binary visions]

Skydiving was one of the craziest and greatest experiences of my life.

Wind tunnel might be fun for a novelty. It'd probably be great for training someone for solo jumps - cheaper than the multi-thousand-dollar cost of doing all the instructional jumps for a certificate.

Nothing like plunging from a plane at 14,000 ft., though :D

The freefall was, naturally, the most exciting part. The several minutes of drifting with the 'chute pulled was a lot of fun, though. I want to do it over an island like Hawaii.

[Pau11y]

Ok, found some more videos that will show the kind of glide ratio a wingsuit can pull off. I can't get a link from site so you'll need to click a couple of links
1. goto: http://www.bird-man.com/index.php?n=media&a=category&v=video

2. click on the link that says: robert_large.wm

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