iFLY Indoor Skydiving - Sacramento — Attraction in Roseville

First off, great facility and super friendly staff. If you’ve never tried it, you’d have a wonderful experience here. Mine was so so and I doubt I’d return. I’ve flown in a few indoor wind tunnels and stop in occasionally when traveling. I’ve flown in military tunnels in Wright-Patt and Ft. Bragg and a tunnel in Las Vegas when it was first built and iFlys in Dallas and Univeral Studios. I used to teach military free fall and have several hundred hours in tunnels and as an AFF instructor and tandem master, over 2,000 jumps. I also competed in 4-way competitions.

I quit jumping 20 years ago so the occasional visit to an indoor skydiving spot is fun. I understand since I’m not a regular they have to check my skills for safety and treat me like a beginner on first flight but every other place by the second flight has turned up the wind speed so I could fly normally with the speed and precision that comes with higher wind speed. At Roseville, not the case. I showed the instructor that with my normal flying position, I would just lay on the net. Wind speed was 80. I asked for more speed but he wouldn’t allow it. When we were done, he asked if we wanted to buy some more flight time. Of course I would. I asked if he’d have the speed increased so I could really play and I said I’d keep my height low but he responded with, no. No more speed. He said my body position was my problem, not the speed. I said thanks and left. Of course, they cranked up the speed so he could play a minute before being done.

As a very experienced instructor, I understand why he addressed this as he did. Him as an A licensed skydiver with very few real jumps and lots of tunnel time, it was rather insulting that he blamed my flying on my body position even though I only got a max speed in the 80’s. I’ve flown other tunnels and turned fast 4-way points with the appropriate speed. So unless you go through the process to go through their levels and get signed off on whatever process steps, if you’re experienced, you might be disappointed with your experience here. Other iFly locations have been much...

I thought it was a tremendous experience. It's not really like free falling from 12,000 feet but it is a blast to just be lifted up by air and to try and learn the forms in the signals and try to maintain steadiness while you're floating. The fun part is on your second flight you can choose to go up and down the wind tunnel with the instructor in a spinning motion. It definitely gives you a bug to want to do it more and they do offer packages where you can progress in your skills. I'm thinking about it. Oh! I should point out that I've had a crippling fear of heights since I was a little boy and none of that came to play because of the way that the wind tunnel is structured as well as the handling of the instructor. Hands down it's a very unique experience. And, if you train long enough it actually can go a long way for any ideas of actually training for and performing actual skydiving. Probably the only negative that I felt was that I bought one video for my son in one video for myself to capture the moment assuming that the video would include both flights since it's your whole experience. That when you get online to download them they've separated both flights so that you can only choose one. Which is really kind of unfair in the sense that one is so basic but it was also your first one and then the second one was more exhilarating so you don't want to lose that one. In my opinion they're making a boatload of money and they really ought to combine the videos to one video to purchase. our instructor was James and he could not have been more perfect. Very calm, very charming and amusing. He's perfect for first-time flyers as I'm sure he is great with very experienced ones. He handles kids with extreme ease and playfulness. Huge shout...

Our three kids loved this experience. They couldn't stop talking about it all the way home. You have to make a reservation in order to fly. This is nice because there were only a few families in the iFly area. It's a little spendy at $90 a kid and $20 to upgrade to a "high fly" where they take you from top to bottom of the iFly machine roughly 10 times. The kids really liked the high fly. It was worth the $20 since we don't have any plans to return. The flights are about 45 seconds, and you get 2 of them for the $90. The kids' high fly's were done during their second flights. We filled out our release forms online the day before when we scheduled our time slot. We showed up the requested 20 mins early and were there for a total of an hour. The kids had to watch a video and then suit up. You need to use clear eye covers and ear plugs as well as the suit and helmet. At the end of your flight, you are given an option to fly again for $20, and then after fights have ended, you can buy your next flight package for 50% off. It's a much better deal (than your first flights) if you are planning to do this again. You can buy pictures they take for $4-5 and videos for $8-9. You get to review all of the pictures and videos before you purchase them. We did not buy or even look at this option. My only complaint is that they have some white walls in the room, and those put annoying glares on the tube the flying happens in. This makes clear pictures and video difficult with your own camera. Everywhere inside (including the bathrooms)...