Flight by Tommia Wright

The gust of wind at your feet, the roar of it all around while awaiting your turn on the bench just outside the chamber, many onlookers surrounding and looking in. The short lessons, the signal reviews and suiting up led to this when the time came:

Chin up, hands close and just fall into the wind.

It was an impulsive thing of sorts. I originally planned my extended weekend to include ‘one big slumber party’ and ‘one big adventure.’ The writers’ retreat was fantastic, motivating, fun as our ‘marathon’ to reach and keep a certain goal became our mini-contest. The big adventure was going to be for the next day away from work.

Then I thought about it – why not make this weekend a ‘flight of fancy’ (or folly if I listened to certain folks)? I enjoyed a stroll across one suspension bridge (thank you Becca for that reminder!) when I looked at a map for another. I walked as close to the river as one could allow, snapping a few shots here and there.

So, writing on land, shots of the water…I boldly took to the air.

I don’t have a fear of heights, just a fear of falling (up the stairs no less). Since I know it will be quite some time before I ever find myself trying to fly a plane, sky diving felt and seemed like the next logical level. That’s how I stumbled upon iFly.

Ten of us filled the classroom, made our preparations – goggles that began to fog up, earplugs to muffle the surrounding sounds, suits baggy enough to be one’s own personal parachute of sorts, bare hands all the better to feel the rush of the wind – and hopefully have control of the flight, and then took our places in the chamber.

The first minute required finding the right balance, the perfect posture, the letting go of other fears. Floating on air, actually flying (and occasionally ‘crashing’)…It was liberating!

The second flight was smoother, having learned what not to do, what one can do from the first time. The instructor, Ben, took hold during the last twenty seconds of flight, and the winds increased, carrying me up higher in the chamber.

That was it, time to decompress, time to slink out of the suits, back to our street clothes.

Time to make plans for another flight!