Off The Wall

Would you pay to be blown up? That's exactly what a group of adventuresome "Off the Wall" ladies did while "bodyflying" last week. Together with Zug's "Carpe Diem" group, this fearless lot tackled a brand new sport - flying in a vertical wind tunnel!

The session kicked-off with a video that demonstrated exactly what bodyflying involved.

The video was followed by instructions on how we should position our bodies during "flight" and how to correctly land after the bodyflying session.

Outfitted with a flight suit, helmet, goggles and glove, we were ready to fly.



  

To bodyfly, a person gently falls forward into a vertical wind tunnel and into the arms of a waiting instructor. Propelled by 5-whirling blades underneath, an air stream blows upwards, enabling humans to hover and fly.

There's no chance of being pulled into the wind tunnel because it's covered by a sturdy wire mesh that functions much like a trampoline when you land on it. Although the current can go up to 200 km/h, we went much slower than that and were guided the whole time by an instructor.

Although it sounds scary, it's safe and definitely quite an adrenaline rush.



  


If you're having trouble visualizing what we did, just go to www.bodyflying.ch.