Last Christmas David and I got tickets to go indoor skydiving at iFly in the Portland area. We were so excited to go and use the tickets, but for some reason we never got around to actually booking flights and going!! This past weekend was my birthday weekend and we thought that it would be the perfect time to finally go and see what iFly had to offer!

We booked our trip for Friday evening and were told that we needed to arrive an hour early. We got there at the time planned and got to watch a children's party for awhile. All of the little kids seemed to be having an amazing time, and it was fun for us to get to see what we were in for in advance. We also saw a few instructor demonstrations which was super cool. The things that the professionals could do were so amazing and made us so excited to fly!

While we were waiting we watched an instructional video which taught us about safety, body positioning and hand signals. While you are in the skydiving chamber the wind is so loud that you aren't able to hear anything, so the hand signals are an important way for the instructor to let you know to change something about your body position. After the video we were suited up in great flying outfits, got goggles and helmets, and ear plugs. Then we were ready to fly!

The package we got allowed us two minutes of flying time each in one minute increments. David went first, then me, then we each went again. After watching the instructors perform earlier I thought we would be doing awesome tricks and going up high. To be honest I was a bit sad that we stayed low to the ground the whole time with the instructor helping us out. I totally understand that we weren't skilled enough to be on our own and do cool tricks. The body position is incredibly important- just slight movements with your hands or body can spin you in circles or cause you to move up or down or in different ways. In only 2 minutes of flying time it would probably be impossible to learn enough to fly!! This experience would be amazing if you were to go for more minutes, or go more frequently so that you can learn to do the cool tricks and spins. I have been skydiving out of a plane before and one of the best parts was the view, which you obviously didn't get with this. I did have a major adrenaline rush after finishing though, which I definitely enjoyed.

My advice is to go skydiving out of a plane! It is an absolutely breathtaking experience and one I will never forget. However, if the idea scares you too much, or you are interested in learning cool tricks at indoor skydiving, definitely check it out!