iFly - session 4
Well, after dreaming about getting my body positions down better so I could fly more independently, I signed up for another round of three flights at iFly Minneapolis. I was excited to take my boys along after they joined me on the third flight, but unfortunately most of the Johnson household has been under the weather, so I went alone. I’m fortunate to be able to make my own work schedule, so I grabbed the first time slot available on a week day. Boy is that the way to go! It’s nice to walk into an empty lobby before they’ve even fired up the tunnel for the day’s flights. It’s also a little weird to have visited the establishment enough where some of the staff recognizes me now.
My instructor wanted to continue working on the skills I started learning last time: left and right turns, forward and backwards movement, as well as some up and down motions. In this round of flights, I really felt like I got the left and right turns smooth. I was originally taught just to tilt my hands left or right, and that does work. But it feels like I get a bit more power by using some shoulder/arm movement as well, like the Tunnelflight video shows.
I’m still struggling with the back and forth flying. After watching the Tunnelflight video, I came prepared to move both my arms and legs at the same time to get my body moving. That movement felt uneven to me, so at the end of my sessions the instructor suggested I first learn the skill by moving just my arms or legs. My up and down movement is the skill I’m most excited about, but also struggling with. I learned that when I put my head down and stretch my arms out, I am also plunging them slightly down, which was working against me.
As you can see here, I'm still kind of flailing and a bit out of control:
As is typical with my iFly visits, I had a Keanu Reeves “WHOA!” moment on my final flight. I finally did get my body to raise up in a fairly controlled motion, and brought it down as well. During the last seconds of my flight, the instructor had me give high fives to various stickers hung up around the tunnel. I kind of crashed into them more than gave them a clean high five, but at least I had some success. My instructor said a good strategy was to get lined up from a height standpoint first, and then do the forward moment towards the stickers:
When the flights were over, my instructor told me a bit more about the Tunnelflight site, and how once I start getting some of my skills down they will be able to “sign off” on them so I can start advancing up the progression ladder. Dang, that would be cool!
He also talked a bit about one skill we hadn’t worked on, but that I’d need to master as a level 1 flyer: getting in and out of the tube without assistance. One way to get in is to raise your arm, keep your chin up, and kind of do a “trust fall” into the center column of air. That part I got to practice a little on my third visit. I guess another way people enter the tube is butt first - gripping the edges of the entryway and pushing their legs out behind them to catch air. Seems like that might be a more stable way to go, with less chance of faceplanting?