I'll probably say this a lot in this blog series, but today’s visit was my favorite so far. Why? A few reasons!

First off, I got to fly with a buddy of mine today for the second time, and I think he’s getting the flying “bug” just about as much as I am. In fact, the two of us are buying out an entire half hour session next week, which is super fun (and maybe crazy?)! That means we’re going to fly 15 minutes a piece, broken up into ~2 minute flights.

The other reason I loved this session is I’m finally doing a better job of engaging my legs. My instructor gave me a few exercises where I had to push against him by fully extending my legs. He also had me fly much higher in the tube and do side slides while he interrupted the air flow beneath me. Kind of scary to feel like I’m gonna drop out of the sky like a rock, but thrilling at the same time. He also had me fly all the way down to the mat and then extend my arms and legs fully to shoot up into the air with a bit more force.

Oh, and I also got to do my favorite tunnel entrance where I step into the tunnel with my back to the wind, grip the door, and then let my legs hit the air one leg at a time. It kind of feels like someone is tripping you from behind, except you don’t fall (hopefully :-).

Last cool thing to share is I got my belly fly exits signed off on - booyah!

Below are some highlights from today’s flight. Total time iFlying as of today: 1 hour, 40 minutes.

Welp, I’m still absolutely loving playing Smash Drums as a way to relieve stress. I recently completed one of my favorite songs in the SD library, Something I Can Dance To, on extreme difficulty level! Check it out:

Such a fun flying session! This time I went with my boys again. It was their third or fourth time, so they got to spend some time doing belly work - that's where the instructor brings down the wind speed so you're flat on the mat, and then works with you on turns and towards/away movements. On their final session, the instructor had them stretch out their arms and legs while also lowering their heads. These are the movements that start lifting you into the air on your own! I loved watching both my boys get an "OMG!" face when that happened, and come out of the tunnel with huge smiles on their faces!

I got to work more on side slides, which still frustrate me but I'm gonna get 'em one of these days! We also worked on flying with more of the body - I had to put my hands on my head and fly up and down, which was both scary and exhilarating. It might sound weird, but I think my favorite part was learning what I think is called a reverse entrance(?), and that's where you get into the tunnel, face the door, grip it, and then let your legs get carried up into the air. It felt like I might fall on the ground and break my face, but once that DIDN'T happen, I loved it! Check out the video below.

Total time iFlying as of today: 1 hour, 30 minutes

Welp, I’m a member of a gun club now. This is a sentence I never thought I would write at this age, if ever. But a bunch of events happened around the same time that sealed the deal for me:

First, about a month ago I completed the concealed carry course, then a few weeks ago I learned a bunch of interesting tips in a self defense class hosted at the gun club. Finally, I got my permit in the mail and bought a gun. Since I drive near a gun club almost every night of the week for my kids’ extracurricular activities, I figured I should stop by to learn more about membership options.

The staff was extremely helpful and friendly. They probably spent 30 minutes giving me a tour of the place, answering questions, and (gently) selling me on the advantages of a membership. It definitely is one of those memberships where even if you only use it two times a month, it is a better deal than just walking in off the street and shooting. Plus, I'm the kind of person who guilts myself endlessly if I spend money on something I don't use.

Anyways, I had a pretty decent first round of shooting with the new pistol. These hits were from about 15 feet away:

In my 2022 to focus more on play in my work/play balance, I picked up a fun game for Oculus Quest 2 called Smash Drums. It's similar to the Guitar Hero series, but with (air) drums. I'd definitely file the game under the "You feel awesome playing it, but look like a complete idiot to people watching you play" category. I find that playing the game at the end of a hard work day is a real stress reliever. When I play on the higher difficulty levels, I work up quite a sweat - my watch even kicks in sometimes, asking "Hey, you doing a workout, fella?"

Anyway, I thought it would be fun to post some video clips as I conquer songs on the highest difficulty level. Below is my favorite song in the Smash Drums song library, called Lips are Locked:

Today’s session was really challenging. In addition to focusing on my side slides (the last skill I have to conquer before moving on to level 2), I had a few curve balls thrown at me:

• I had to remain in a solid flying position while my instructor tugged at my arms and legs, attempting to destabilize me
• I had to remain in a solid flying position while my instructor interrupted my wind flow.

I laughed when I watched the video replay because I didn’t realize my instructor was literally flying under me to interrupt the wind flow!

Outside of these fun exercises, I did a lot more drilling of up/down/diagonal flying, side slides, and tunnel entrances/exits. I also got to do a bit of turning using my legs instead of my arms. I got those turns half right. Apparently whether I turned my left or right leg outward, I was always turning counter-clockwise. That actually brings up a point I’ve been meaning to emphasize since I started this blog series. I don’t know if there’s a name for it (maybe “tunnel vision” or something like that?), but I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been confused about an instruction given during a lesson, but then immediately understand it once I see the video playback. I want to just kick myself sometimes, but my instructor assured me this feeling is normal.

One thing I learned after my flights were over is they had cranked the wind speed up to 70 for my first flight, but I struggled a bit with that speed so they lowered me down to 68 again. Apparently with the way I hold my arms, it makes it more difficult for me to lower myself to the ground and stay there. The instructor said next time I should tuck in my arms closer to my body, T-Rex style, to reduce wind resistance. The T-Rex arms thing is definitely a theme for me, and seems to be a key to better arm-led flying. I should also note that I’m getting much more comfortable using my legs to drive movement, and if I could just get them to listen to my brain a bit more, I’d have those side slides DOWN!

As of today my total tunnel time is: 1 hour, 20 minutes and I think my base speed is still 68.

This visit was extra fun because I brought a buddy with me, who had flown once many years ago. We also flew with a group of first-timers. Now I know I'm a big dumb animal, but it is so fun for me to watch people do iFly for the first time. I love seeing their reaction to hitting the wind - whether it be an expression of joy or terror. I try my best to root for them from the sidelines, but I'm not sure if it does any good, since some first-timers clamp their eyelids shut!

After my last visit, I came into today's flights with only the tunnel exit and side slides left in the level 1 skills list. My instructor spent one run having me do several entrances and exits. I overshot a few of my entrances and almost tapped the tunnel glass, but after the third or fourth time I hit the pocket pretty well. My exits went smooth for the most part too, though one time I came at the door way too high, so it was recommended to me that I don't do that again - it's a safety issue. Speaking of that, one of the new flyers must've forgotten the tunnel exit instructions because he didn't hold on to the door frame at all and almost went head first into the ground!

My side slides still elude me. I can picture what my arms and legs should be doing, and I've watched the instructional video a bunch of times, but it's still not fully clicking for me. It just feels like if I even look left or right, my body goes there immediately...which is probably good, but if I add any arm or leg movements I fear I'm going to slam into the side of the tunnel. I'm kind of getting a hang of it - and captured at least one decent slide in this video:

Good news is that the instructor said my exits look good and would sign off on them in the Tunnelflight portal. That means I only have these pesky side slides to master and then it will be on to level 2 and back flying!

On a side note, the buddy I brought with me today asked what it would take to rent the tunnel exclusively for just the two of us. Apparently you have to buy three of the 10-flight passes and then we could (theoretically) fly 15 minutes a piece at 2 minutes per flight. Even a dork like me is concerned that it might be too much flying for one sitting, but if we make that epic flight visit happen, I'll most certainly blog about it :-)

As of today my total tunnel time is: 1 hour, 10 minutes and my new wind speed is 68!

Oh yeah! Another super fun visit with little improvements. I feel like this whole flying thing is starting to click!

After my last pretty decent set of flights last week, I was anxious to get back in the tunnel today. I was also nervous because I would be flying with an instructor I hadn’t met before. But as I mentioned in previous posts, it’s really awesome to get to work with a variety of instructors since each one has given me different tips and tricks to work on, or given me a different way to think about an existing skill to make it easier or less tiring for my limbs.

Since this instructor hadn’t worked with me, my first run in the tunnel was mainly so he could see where I was at skill-wise. They kept the wind speed a little lower, and he ran me through a set of the level 1 skills: neutral belly position, belly forward/backward, belly turns, belly up/down, belly fly side slide and belly fly enter/exit. Overall I felt pretty solid with everything but the tunnel entrance and belly side slide.

One thing I really appreciated this time around was that my instructor gave me some tips at the beginning of each turn (normally instructors gave me a debrief once all the turns were over and we were back in the lobby getting changed out of our flight suits). He told me to suck in my butt more during the tunnel entrance, and kind of “curl into it” by bending at the knees as I fell forward. That really helped, because my landing was a lot more smooth. However, I think I got too excited and pushed too hard off the ground, because I almost crashed into the other side of the tunnel. The next time, he gave me the goal of not pushing out quite so hard and trying to end up right in the center of the tunnel. I did it (video below)!

On the next turns, we worked a lot on side slides, which I’m still struggling with. It’s sometimes frustrating to watch the Tunnelflight videos on skills like this, because they’re always so smooth and perfect! However, I am starting to get the hang of it.

Overall though, I accomplished the goal I set for this visit: I wanted to engage my legs more to support the different movements. I definitely felt a difference during my back/forward flying, as well as my tunnel exits. Now if I can just get my legs to do what I want during side slides, I think I’ll get those nailed pretty quick too.

After my turns were over, my instructor gave me a ton of encouragement and good advice for what to work on next time. He even said he would sign off on belly forward/back flying and tunnel exits, so I shot those approvals over to him! That leaves only tunnel entrances and belly side sliding and then I’ll have conquered level 1 of flying skills!

Update #1: My instructor signed off on my new skills - check it out!

Update #2: Also, going forward I wanted to start keeping track of my total elapsed tunnel time, and update it in future posts. As of today my total tunnel time is: 60 minutes

Update #3:
Oh and I almost forgot: today they moved my wind speed up from 66% to 67%. I want to brag about this to somebody, but I'm not sure who outside of the iFly staff would think that's neat :-)

Update#4:
I learned that when you're flying and wobbling back and forth and/or side to side, it's sometimes called "potato chipping."

Oh yeah! After having a pretty sucky last set of flights, I felt I was in much better flying form today! I had a new trainer today, and I always love learning new tips, tricks, and ways to think about different skills. Each trainer brings unique experiences and background to what they do, so I try to just put myself in “sponge mode” and take it all in. However, I have a tendency to overthink everything, so I was careful to not psych myself out as I was putting on my flight suit.

One really good tip my instructor shared that I did ponder this time, though, was to try and focus on improving control in one area of my body. Last time my instructor said I was exhausting myself unnecessarily with my arm position, and that I should try more T-rex style arms by bringing them in closer to my body. That tip definitely helped during this visit, as I felt like in general, my neutral position was more stable than in the past. We also played a few games of “tap the stickers,” and I felt more in control this time around than probably any flight in the past.

Last time I was at iFly I just totally stunk at entrances - I would either have my feet kick up/out halfway into the tube (didn’t give myself a hard enough outward push) or headed up towards the sky (body wasn’t flat). On a side note only nerds would care about, this week I practiced my tube entrances at home…kinda. Every morning, once I got up and ready for work, I’d come to the side of my bed, reach my hands in the air, keep my eyes glued to the ceiling, and fall.

The practice at home definitely helped once I got to do the real deal! My “trust fall” version of the entrances went pretty well, and my exits are fairly solid too. But my “straight out” entrances are still a bit wobbly. A good tip I got was to think of the entrances as “You are flying the whole time,” rather than the way I was approaching it, which was “I’m going to push myself out on to a pocket of air and try to balance on it.” I’ll give that a go next time.

Another thing I struggled with this time was staying high up in the air. I thought my new T-rex arm position would take care of that, but I still found myself slowly crashing and burning (so to speak) several times. My instructor said next time I should really focus on powering the moves with my legs, because sometimes those were bent too much to keep me up and stable. I’ll give that a go next time too!

After taking my concealed carry course a month or so ago, I started getting a lot more interested in additional classes on shooting and self-defense. And since I’m in the neighborhood of the classroom/range six nights a week, I signed up for another one of their courses last week, called Flashlight and less lethal weapons. The (sort of) funny thing is I actually meant to sign up for a different class, and didn’t realize my oopsie until I got on site. And it was interesting to be the only dude in a room full of ladies but I was and am 100% fine with that.

Overall, I enjoyed the course quite a bit. It was a good balance of practical “here are some less lethal ways to defend/escape a dangerous confrontation” advice, as well as “how and why you should be ready to tell your side of a story to authorities.” The instructor said it is best, in a confrontational situation, for the authorities to hear from you first - because you will have first-hand perspective of the events that transpired, and because the authorities are more likely to believe the first account they hear.

We also talked a lot about why people are targets for muggings, carjackings, etc. Some reasons you could be targeted:

• You appear very “tourist-y”
• Your face is buried in your phone - you're distracted!
• You’re just standing at your vehicle, and thus vulnerable because your attention is on getting keys out of your pocket/purse
• You were in a store paying for something with a wad of cash, and someone “marked” you for further attention once you are outside of the store and alone
• You are wearing an expensive watch (expensive watch = you probably have a lot of money)

The instructor then focused on ways to not be a victim when you’re out and about:

• Keep your chin up, and shoulders back
• Do “head on a swivel” constantly - often looking to your left, right and behind you
• Get your face out of your phone! Put it in your pocket!
• Take out headphones/earbuds

Next, we covered common non-lethal weapons and why they are popular but probably not super effective:

• Handful of keys - in a confrontation it will be hard to get them out of your pocket, line them up in your fingers like brass knuckles, and use them with enough accuracy and force to do damage
• Pepper spray - many police forces don’t use them anymore because it’s so easy to miss your target and/or hit yourself in windy conditions

Then we talked about non-lethal weapons that are effective:

• Kimber Pepper Blaster 2 - it doesn’t fire with compressed air like pepper spray, but similar to how a bullet exits a gun. It has a 13-ft range (leaving the chamber at 112MPH / 163 feet per second). It holds two successive shots. You aim for the center of your attacker’s chest. Fire a second time if they keep coming at you.
• Flashlight - we talked about how a flashlight is a great way to walk yourself to your car in the dark, and how it should be used to walk the perimeter of your car before you get in to make sure nobody’s waiting to pounce

The instructor gave us some effective flashlight handling tips:

• Get a flashlight like this one which has 1000 lumens or more (very bright!)
• Walk like a victor - again, keeping your head/chin up, shoulders back, constantly scanning your environment
• Carry flashlight in non-dominant hand
• If you see someone approaching or standing nearby that looks out of the norm, do a quick flash of your flashlight in front of them on the ground (that lets them know that they see you and you have your eyes on them)
• If the person approaches, call them out in a loud voice while holding the light in their eyes
• If someone approaches in friendly conversation but the situation doesn’t feel right, keep a few steps back, keep them talking, and watch their shoulders - if one shoulder raises, the person may be reaching for a weapon

Lastly, we talked about ways to escape from arm/throat holds, and practiced the “hammer fist” in which you aim to break an assailant’s nose so you can escape a confrontation. I guess it only takes 2.5 pounds of pressure via hammer fist to break a nose. Ouchie!

Overall, a very informative class, and I’m glad I went. I would normally close a post with something optimistic, like “I can’t wait to deliver some hammer fists and pepper blasts to people!” but of course I don’t hope to ever have to use any of the skills I learned tonight. Still, better safe than sorry!