Michaela, a Northern Beaches Mum, got the opportunity to try out iFLY Downunder with her two children Thomas (11) and Melissa (7) and here is her raving review…
I?ve always wanted to say I had done a sky dive but being scared of heights you would never get me sitting in that small plane and jumping out! No way, hose!
Firstly, the centre is out at Penrith so a nice family drive, WARNING: DO NOT BE PUT OFF THAT YOU HAVE TO DRIVE… it is worth the travel? HELL YES!!!!! This is a fantastic experience for the whole family, so if you are looking for something different to do and something that you?ll always remember, then this is it!
I was visiting the centre with my husband, my best friend from abroad and my two kids who are 11 and 7. The kids were super excited but i was feeling pretty nervous and my husband was still in shock that I?d booked this as I don?t normally go in for anything energetic and especially adrenaline pumping.
So… on arrival we started to get a little excited. It is a big centre with lots of seating where everyone can view the people that are currently in the wind tunnel area doing their sky dives. There?s also a caf? there with food and drink BONUS… I got cake and coffee so I was happy!
The staff are super helpful and friendly, and they took us in a room for our pre-flight training and safety talk and to get us kitted out in our flight gear, goggles and helmets. Now I was dreading putting the suit on as I thought I?d look ridiculous and fat but another bonus is that the suit was super slimming, I actually looked slimmer BONUS!!! and I was yet again feeling more and more pumped about booking this experience and ready to show the kids that this mummy still had some fun in her. Yes the nagging, tired, worn out, drained mummy was gone and here was super mama!! ready to go go go!! I could see the kids looking at me like is this really our mum? did they put something in coffee at the caf?!!! who hoo lets goooo!!!
It?s time for the skydive and you?re about to go in? oh wait a minute quick toilet trip for us all as we don?t want any accidents in there! Once you?re all ready you all have to put your headphones on to cancel the noise as it is REALLY NOISEY in there! So once you go in there?s lots of sign language going on (no bickering from the kids as you can?t hear a word they?re saying… BONUS).
The sky dive itself is in a large vertical glass tube that goes up pretty high. We all did 3 different sky dives the first was a normal sky dive to get use to it and enjoy the experience. I was surprised how easy it was. In I went and gracefully went into position and there I was, it was just me the air and an incredible adrenaline rush. The second was a trip right up to the top of the wind tunnel… up up up spinning around and back down we went, it was totally awesome and so much fun. We all managed to do it quite daintily with no flying arms and legs, we had nailed it. The last go on the tunnel was with the virtual reality headset. I opted for ?a dive over Hawaii? as I thought it would be pretty cool to see it diving from the sky and it was great! BUT I?d highly recommend the one to do is the Base Jump as the people who did all 3 virtual reality experiences loved the base jump the best. The kids eyes were totally lite up and they were squeaking with joy and excitement.
Our lovely instructor who helped us though all of this put on a great show at the end doing acrobatics inside the tube up and down and around he went… I need to go back a few more times to learn to do all of that! haha
It was exhilarating, fun and all the family for once were on the same page and laughing and totally enjoyed the experience. You can fly no matter what age you, you can even take grandma and grandad along. It doesn?t matter if you have a disability as the team at iFLY will take good care of you.
Would we do it again? Well we?ve already booked in for next school holidays! I had to book in now to stop the kids asking me to book in for the next 10 weeks so hopefully we?ll see some of you there!
Whether you are celebrating a special event, planning a corporate day out or looking for a new sport to take up ? they?ll help you get up to speed at iFLY Downunder!
Phone: 1300 366 364
Address: 123 Mulgoa Road, Penrith
Email: info.pen@ifly.com.au
Website: https://downunder.iflyworld.com