“There’s no parachute [...] and nothing attaching you to planet Earth.” When I first started researching the indoor skydiving experience at iFly, that is the sentence that stuck out as particularly unsettling. My boss had given me this assignment—which would include actually participating indoor skydiving—and I was trying to get used to the idea.

After watching few videos of 3-year-olds frolicking in iFly’s vertical wind tunnel, I was ready (I would not be outdone by toddlers). I’m ultimately glad I went, and here are a few reasons why.

You Get a Show

This was my first sight upon arriving at iFly: a giant vertical wind tunnel that stretched up about two stories up the center of the room. Inside it, the flight instructors were taking turns showing off tricks. They’d spread their arms and legs and float up to the top of the tunnel, and then plunge back down in a controlled nose-dive. They’d do back flips, front flips, and high-speed spins—at one point, even appearing to breakdance. This seemingly effortless display squashed my remaining nerves, and inflated my confidence (I remember thinking: “How hard can it be?”).

You Get Training

As it turns out, the tricks and flips are plenty hard, and not at all effortless. My group’s instructor touched upon this in flight school, which covered both the process and the all-important position for optimal flight: relaxed body, chin up, arms at eye level and bent in at the elbows, and legs bent up at the knee. If that sounds like a simple enough pose, try being mindful of all these requirements when you’re facing down 120 mph winds!

Speaking of rushing, noisy winds, it’s impossible to communicate verbally in a vertical wind tunnel. So, flight school also covered hand signals the hand signals the instructor would use to guide us during the actual indoor skydiving session: one finger up meant put your chin up, two fingers bent meant bend your legs, and the hang loose sign meant relax.

A bit of advice: When they say relax, seriously—try to do that. I was as tense as a trembling Yorkie, and as a result, my muscles were sore the next day.

You Get More Time in the Air

After flight school, the group queued up for two turns in the wind tunnel: one introductory flight to get the feel of things, and one high flight, during which the instructor would give us a high-flying spin. Each iFly indoor skydiving session lasts 60 seconds, which is actually 15 seconds longer than the typical free fall while jumping out of an airplane. And, like most traditional skydiving experiences for amateurs, you’re flying in tandem with the instructor—which helped quell my nervousness about those additional 15 seconds!

You Get an Out-of-Body Experience

It was finally my turn. The instructor pulled me in, and all of the sudden, whoosh!—I was experiencing the full-body version of sticking your head out of a car window. The best part is that it’s physically impossible to look down and see how high you are while you’re keeping your chin up. And that’s when the hand signals, ahem, come in handy: holding the proper indoor skydiving position while battling the wind really did take a lot more effort than I was expecting, and those signals successfully kept me afloat.

My second flight—the high flight—was seriously wild. After re-entering the tunnel, the instructor grabbed onto my right arm and right leg, and floated us up to the top. I felt completely weightless, but as soon as I got used to that feeling, we shot back down.

And then back up.

And then back down.

We did four rotations like that, and it was more intense than any roller coaster I’ve ever ridden. But back on solid ground, I felt like those laughing toddlers from the videos—I wanted nothing more than to go indoor skydiving again!

Photos by Phil Campbell and Jeremy Hayes.