As Napoleon Dynamite would say, “YUSSSSSSSSSSS!” I did it! I passed my level 1 set of flight skills!
I’m sure I’ve already said this one or five times in the past, but this was my favorite set of flights so far. For the first time, I didn’t feel nervous or like I was setting out with a mindset of checking skills off the list. I went in with the mindset of just having a fun time (and yes, hopefully passing my side slides so I could stick a fork in level 1 flying)!
I got to do a couple new styles of tunnel entrances. I’m not sure what they are called (side fly entrances?) but they went pretty well. I learned later that the wind was unintentionally set a little high for one entrance – and you can definitely tell which one based on the video below.
I also got to do a ton of doubles flying (if that’s the term?) with my instructor where I had to mirror her movements as we did various formations around the tunnel. I felt pretty good about those, but the box flying (again, I can’t remember the terms…this is just what I’m calling it) still makes me nervous. It’s a weird sensation to feel the wind give out from under you ever so briefly as someone flies underneath you. I didn’t mind that feeling so much when flying solo, but for some reason, having someone fly right underneath me makes me worried I’ll fall out of the sky like a boat anchor and cause both of us to crash! Fortunately, that didn’t happen. Here are my favorite moments from this visit:
Going forward, I get to start working on my level 2 skills, which is rad! The other thing that changes is I get to start using what’s called block time. With block time, I no longer need to buy vouchers and schedule visits on the iFly Web site. Now I can call up the office directly, ask to get on a specific trainer’s schedule at a specific time for however many minutes I want. Then I just pay for the total minutes flown at the end of the visit. That’s cool! I’ve talked to some experienced flyers during my past visits, and they said they like to book 5 minutes with one trainer, then take a quick break and have another 5 minutes at the next time slot with a different trainer. I actually already booked my next iFly visit, so I’ll have to use the block scheduling going forward after that (I already asked if I could use my next visit to work on level 2 skills but no, voucher minutes can be used for belly flying only).
Total time iFlying as of today: 2 hours, 10 minutes. And my new adjusted wind speed is 68.