The instructors at iFly Sacramento, in Roseville, do a practice round, as the controller manages air flow. Fans at the top of a vertical wind tunnel draw air through the flight chamber and then push it back down through the sides, creating a column of air.
These instructors pride themselves on being able to take anyone off the street and introduce them to the sport of bodyflight.
Well, almost anyone. The age range is 3 to 103 (although rumor has it someone older has gone) and the flier must weigh less than 230 pounds if under 6 feet tall or less than 250 pounds if over 6 feet tall
For one session, a customer gets two turns flying, each lasting one minute.
iFly hosts lots of youth birthday parties and field trips, using the tunnel as a STEM teaching tool, and children tend to do better than adults at indoor skydiving because they don’t tense up, says iFly Sacramento General Manager Cameron Cole. The most important thing, he says, is to relax.
The most important thing, he says, is to relax.
Instructor Charles Reid leads a training of his peers at iFly in Roseville. Reid, 30, started working for iFly eight years ago. At 19 years old, he moved to California and took a job at the Port of Oakland, he says. “I looked left and right, and thought, this is not for me. So I walked out at lunch.” Within a month, he’d found an advertisement on Craigslist seeking applicants for the iFly in the Bay Area
He started at the front desk and worked his way up to instructor after completing the four-week Flight Instructor Training Program, where he learned safety protocols, hand positioning — to avoid inappropriate grabs — and techniques for handling fliers.
To become an instructor, a person must be at least 18 years old, complete the FITP and pass a physical test. “It’s an upper body workout; there’s no way around that,” Reid says. His words of advice for first-time fliers: “Chin up, smile, hold still, have fun. That’s what it’s all about.”