BoogieBob 0 #1 December 15, 2007 Today I deviated slightly from my usual driving route in my car. For the first time, I stopped at Paraclete XP wind tunnel. Today is the first time I've ever been near a wind tunnel. I didn't try it out. I watched some other people using it. I was pretty sure I knew what I was going to see on the observation deck. It will probably look like people in freefall except that they happen to be in a flight chamber, right? Wrong. Well, not so much wrong. More like severely impressed by what I saw. I haven't jumped since 8/28/2005. When I did jump, even on training jumps, the frame of reference (or lack thereof) made it difficult for me to perceive the severity of my poor skydiving ability. I rode the elevator to the third floor and saw the 16.5 foot flight chamber. There were several young people (age 8-12 or so?) in the wind tunnel area along with an "older" guy (maybe early 20s?). As I expected, when I got off the elevator I saw two people in the flight chamber. One was a very young person and the other looked like an instructor or something like that. To me, it got pretty wild after watching for a minute or two. The control and precision of the instructor guy was amazing to me. The control he displayed was remarkable. Sometimes he would spiral around the tunnel and disappear up into the tunnel shaft with the "client." Then he'd fall back down and stop a few inches over the mesh floor, all the while maintaining control of the client. After that, four or five young people (ages 8-12?) got into the tunnel. I noticed that the instructor guy didn't follow them into the tunnel and also noticed that the chamber "driver" left the windspeed up around 120mph instead of backing it down to 80-90mph like he did for other small people. After about 10 seconds I realized why. These young people were extremely good in the tunnel. They performed various maneuvers and amazed me with how precise they were in their movements. Sit-flying, flying on their backs, "running" up the side of the tunnel...lots of things I couldn't even begin to imagine doing. Maybe it's observing from a fixed frame of reference that impressed me so much. In my skydiving experiences I was lucky to be able fall from the plane to the ground. The precision of the instructor guy and those four young people was way more impressive than I thought it was going to be. Very nice place to visit. I was amazed at the skill level I saw today. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
brianfry713 0 #2 December 17, 2007 Get in there and try it out. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
leroydb 0 #3 December 17, 2007 dude, what brian said... try it out!!! Leroy ..I knew I was an unwanted baby when I saw my bath toys were a toaster and a radio... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
