tunnelflyer.com / Talk about specific wind tunnels / Airkix

Lovely piece on BBC Breakfast News this morning

cloudfall — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 21:50:20 GMT

Well, I turned on the TV this morning and, like I do most mornings for at least 10 minutes watched the breakfast news. For those not in the UK .. The BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) have a breakfast news programme that is on every day of the week and whilst it's more business orientated during the week there are more general "features" at the weekend and the mood of the program is much lighter. Well .. anyway ...

Just a couple seconds after turning on .. one of the presenters who is dared by "viewers" to try a new exciting sport each week mentioned he would be doing some indoor skydiving. A few seconds later and the piece was on .. about 2 minutes in total and a very, very smart introduction to tunnel flying. The presenter had a fly, some of the members of the public were interviewed (all of whom thought it was amazing ofcourse.. One of the tunnel rats that works at Airkix was interviewed for a few seconds .. and then Simon Ward the Chief Exec.

Brilliant piece that was repeated about 4 times from what I gather over the course of the morning. Will have done wonders for tunnelflying .. and will have done great things for Aikkix who's branding was everywhere. Good show to Simon and his media contacts!! :-)

AGM - 10th October 2006 - anyone else going?

cloudfall — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 17:02:25 GMT

Annual General Meeting - 10th October 2006 .. at Airkix itself .. anyone else off?

Airkix on "biggest" radio station in the UK

cloudfall — Wed, 11 Jan 2006 16:52:42 GMT

For the benefit of our American visitors .. BBC Radio 1 is just about the biggest station in the UK. I didn't say the best - but it's the biggest.

Its releases the definite UK chart every week and has a gazillion listeners.

Well, Jo Whiley, one of their DJs said this afternoon that she was going to a Vertical Wind Tunnel in Milton Keynes!!

Wonder where that is :-))))

You can probably hear the clip if you can be bothered to listen to the stream on http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/jowhiley/

Spent nearly a whole day at Airkix .. flying and hanging out ..

cloudfall — Mon, 19 Dec 2005 12:18:43 GMT

Well last week I went to Airkix for my first proper session down there. What I mean by proper session was .. Hanging out there for a few hours, meeting and getting to know as many people as possible and doing 30 mins + time. It wasn't my first experience of Airkix.. Just the first time I'd spent any substantial amount of time down there. It was a brilliant day.

I got there bright and early and was pleasantly greeted by a couple of really nice guys who had just opened the place up. One I think was called Alec (?!) and I can't remember the name of the other guy so well because he quickly went off to get on with something else. It transpired that it was actually shareholder day and the day of the Annual General Meeting a fact that I had completely forgotten about before visiting. This was good news for me! As it happens I am a very small shareholder in the tunnel, so was in store for a far better day than I first planned.

Within a few minutes a few other shareholders turned up and a group of us went for a fly "free of charge". We got a few free flights throughout the day and the staff and team there went to great lengths to explain a little bit about the business and show people round, mainly for the benefit of the shareholders who hadn't been before. I had no idea we were going to get some "shareholder" freebies, so it was a great surprise. Alec acted as our host for the day and was a consumate professional. Very easy to get on with, very good at his job and above all, from what I gathered, a really decent bloke.

Cutting a long story short, apart from having to nip out for a few hours for a meeting in London, I spent most of the day there. Although the place was packed during the day (with shareholders and genuine general flying traffic) evening was quiet for the tunnel and I did about 20 minutes from my own wallet. I had the tunnel to myself for a while!! ;-)

The "catcher" in the tunnel with me in the evening was a guy called Michael, who was great fun and an incredible flyer. For those of you who haven't flown "skyventure" tunnels before, whenever someone flys in the tunnel - there is always someone waiting at the door ready to leap in an rescue you if you do anything too silly. I've never had to be rescued by anyone yet but once a twice I have pushed myself beyond my normal limits and come close to giving myself a battering .. Having a catcher is a great idea, especially for newer flyers and in particular more experienced flyers pushing themselves when freeflying. Anyway, I am waffling on ..

The facilities are spot on. I grumbled a little about the toilets etc not quite being up to scratch in my earlier post from the other week - well this has all been fixed. The whole building was immaculate on this visit. It really is a very, very smart place to hang out. I spent a good part of the day there, it was good. Additionally, the place was running very smoothly indeed, everything on schedule and to plan. This place is getting seriously organised and quick. In short, although this might be a new tunnel the staff are very quickly getting up to speed with all apsects of the business.

So .. During the course of the day and the evening I flew about 40 minutes in total. A good day! In the evening I donned a free-fly suit and went across to the dark side for the first time in a long time and had a thoroughly good time. Those of you that know me, will know that I am more of a RW person than a freefly person .. But that's not to say I haven't done any. In fact I am moderately competant on my back and I spent the evening practicing transisions from back to front in various ways (forward rolls, backward roll) .. Also attempted a little sit .. Got close .. Hmmm .. Had a good time ..!! :-)

The air-stream is very strong, crisp and clean and I think in my own personal experience .. It seems better for freeflying stuff than I remember Orlando being. But you know this stuff is highly subjective. So, Airkix, would I recommend it. Yes in a word. It's a great tunnel, the staff are great and there's lots of other stuff to do when you visit it. Go now .. !!

Going to Airkix Sunday 11th December 2005 - In the evening

cloudfall — Thu, 08 Dec 2005 17:55:01 GMT

I'm have a meeting Monday morning.. so gonna head down that way on Sunday afternoon and fly in Airkix Sunday night

.. any of you UK tunnel bums around?

J

My first visit to Airkix at Milton Keynes

cloudfall — Mon, 28 Nov 2005 21:11:09 GMT

Well, me and 2 newbie friends went down to Airkix today for our maiden voyage there and had a great time. The tunnel is fast and smooth and there is loads of light - loads. Like Skyventure Orlando the tunnel is transparent plexi glass all the way round but there are huge window panes on the outside of the tunnel building itself letting loads of light in. This makes flying very comfortable and has the added benefit that people on the ground below can see you fly enticing them in to have a look. Also, weirdly - the extra light seems to make the tunnel "feel" much bigger than it's similar Skyventure cousins.

This is a recirculating tunnel and to put the benefits of this to test in a cold climate like the UK - today has been very cold.. close to freezing. The tunnel temperature was perfect. I mean it .. perfect. Can I just stress this point again - it was perfect!! I wasn't freezing my nuts off and I wasn't breaking in to a sweat, it felt totally natural. you could fly all day in here. This coupled with the natural light makes this is a great place to fly.

Most of the staff seemed very friendly and amenable and the standard of flying from the instructors was extremely high. The tunnel instructor in with us was with a South African guy called Nick (my memory is terrible, if I have this wrong please let me know and I will correct) he was very likeable and a very hot free flyer. His flying "style" was similar to Rusty Lewis who I must assume was responsible in part for his training (although I could be wrong). This is no bad thing at all!

So, the tunnel is fully operational and damn it - it flies really good. Now the site itself is still just a little rough round the edges, with a few building materials still laying around and in the tunnel building itself there was some work to complete, although NOTHING that would affect your ability to fly. To stress this point, I am talking about cosmetic stuff.. the tunnel itself rocks and you should get yourself over here! The reception area itself is pretty smart and there is a waiting area for people who are on classes with loads of huge comfortable bean bags.

The toilets that I was desparate to use (after 3.5 hours in the car to get there) seemed pretty grubby and were lacking in essential items like soap, toilet paper etc .. I don't know whether I caught it just at the wrong moment.. and I am sure this is stuff that will quickly get under control.. and I hope so, as a very "public" facing tunnel in a prime location stuff like this needs to be 110%. OK Ok I am being picky .. but you know .. stuff like this is important ;-)

Although everything WE did ran smoothly. The timetabling of classes didn't seem like it was going exactly to plan, with a couple of other people hanging round having to wait longer than expected for their classes. This is no biggie whatsoever, this is a new tunnel and it takes time for processes and stuff like that to begin to flow naturally. In any case the couple of guys who were waiting had a brilliant time and were awesome first time flyers.

All in all and excellent day, my friends that went with me had a great time and really progressed. This tunnel is in brilliant location, with loads to do around it - and flies extremely well. It is fast, smooth and strong. You will not be dissapointed if you fly at this tunnel. The staff seem excellent and can only get even better as they become more and more experienced at working at the tunnel. See you here soon!!!!

:-)

James

Airkix looks awesome

cloudfall — Wed, 16 Nov 2005 16:05:43 GMT

Well the first ever skyventure tunnel in the UK looks awesome. The tunnel itself looks smart .. the reception are and training rooms look great .. it's brilliantly located .. the staff are friendly ... the only thing I need to do now is go fly the thing! On the day I went down they were putting some finishing touches on to some of the decor so the tunnel wasn't running. Can't wait to go down and have a fly. Have talked to a couple of people who have flown it and they reckon their airflow is brilliant. All in all I think this place will do well .. great location.. very cool vibe .. and a KFC round the corner.. ahhh it's just like being in Orlando ... ;-) Seriously. If you want a WHOLE day out with the family this is the place to be .. there's a ski slope and climbing wall right next to the tunnel, cinemas, restaurants, clothes shops .. and just down the road a lake where you try all sorts of water sports. Can't wait to spend some time here.