{"id":917,"date":"2020-01-22T13:26:36","date_gmt":"2020-01-22T21:26:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mwenda.com\/teletype\/?p=917"},"modified":"2020-01-22T15:22:37","modified_gmt":"2020-01-22T23:22:37","slug":"indoor-skydiving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mwenda.com\/teletype\/?p=917","title":{"rendered":"Indoor skydiving"},"content":{"rendered":"

What we really want, of course, is to fly as we would in our dreams.<\/p>\n

Waking life offers us various aspects of that experience.\u00a0 Parachute jumping provides a bird’s-eye view of the earth, the brief sensation of weightlessness, and the chance to control movement through subtle gestures.\u00a0 This last bit, it turns out, may be conveniently enjoyed indoors.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I found myself with a free day in nearby Tukwila, home of the Seattle location of iFLY<\/a>, one of about fifty of their vertical wind tunnels wordwide.\u00a0 It happens that even unlikely-looking humans can be made to levitate, and can begin to acquire some skills right away.\u00a0 (Some restrictions apply:\u00a0 they ask about history of heart trouble, back injuries or shoulder dislocations.\u00a0 You see me wearing one white glove because I was unable to remove a ring from that hand.\u00a0 They are understandably wary of debris in their 140 m.p.h. slipstream.)<\/p>\n

There’s much of the magic of soaring, and without the encumbrance of an aircraft.\u00a0 It’s inspiring just to watch the instructors, like Josh, the guy in the red suit above, who flies as well as any animated superhero.\u00a0 The International Bodyflight Association<\/a>\u00a0has videos showing you how it’s done.\u00a0 And by the way, some of the other thrills of jumping can be added back in.\u00a0 Any flight can include a quick trip up to the top of the tunnel.\u00a0 And virtual reality can take the flyer to popular skydiving sites, or for a wingsuit ride.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What we really want, of course, is to fly as we would in our dreams. Waking life offers us various aspects of that experience.\u00a0 Parachute jumping provides a bird’s-eye view of the earth, the brief sensation of weightlessness, and the chance to control movement through subtle gestures.\u00a0 This last bit, it turns out, may be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mwenda.com\/teletype\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mwenda.com\/teletype\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mwenda.com\/teletype\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mwenda.com\/teletype\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mwenda.com\/teletype\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=917"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/mwenda.com\/teletype\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/917\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":928,"href":"https:\/\/mwenda.com\/teletype\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/917\/revisions\/928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mwenda.com\/teletype\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mwenda.com\/teletype\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mwenda.com\/teletype\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}