I bought my brother the voucher for Bedford and totally coincidentally he bought me a voucher for airkix, so we're both planning to do both woohooo! What are the chances of that?!

It seems Airkix are getting much more publicity than Bedford. I even heard a presenter on Radio1 saying he had flown the Bedford VWT but that it was actually in Milton Keynes....Wrong, obviously he hadn't even heard there is more than one and he was saying that over the radio.

Well, I eventually got around to taking my first tunnel flight at Airkix.  I knew it would be good before, just from all of your enthusiasm but now I can say for myself. It is so great!

I definitely wouldn't win any prizes for style or control! (do any Brits remember Mr Soft from the Softmints advert?) but I enjoyed every second of it. I can't wait for our second attempt at Bedford. Its difficult to match up busy schedules, but hopeful it will be late October.

I have a video of our flights if anyone is interested and could give you a link for it on a hosting site, but it takes ages to download. Does anyone know a better free way to make it easily available?

If there is anybody here who hasn't tried tunnel flying and isn't already convinced (unlikely) I would definitely recommend it. Fear free flying!

I'm glad you enjoyed it, I'm not sure at what point you move on from being a newbie ...... but I guess I'm still one!

I've flown at Airkix 5 times, but that still only totals about 18 mins. I'm not a skydiver (just one tandem a few years ago at RAFSPA) and have no plans to throw myself out of an aircraft just yet, due to young family. I've always been fascinated by skydiving (I think it stems from watching John Noakes on Blue Peter when I was a kid - so that dates me!), but I can't justify the time or risk and so the tunnel is the perfect answer to anyone in my situation.

I've taken my 5 yr old son in with me twice, and he absolutely loves it, and would appear to be something of a natural, and therefore I'm looking to go as often as finances allow.

I'm going to try Bodyflight next, there's nothing wrong with Airkix, and I'll certainly go again, but I get the impression that things may be a little more laid back in Bedford. I can appreciate the need for both businesses to recoup the massive investment that has been made, but in 5 visits to MK I don't think I've seen the same person twice, and have had 5 different instructors, and it's therefore difficult to make progress, as you're having to show what you can do everytime you visit. OK, you get a certificate showing progress, but I've never been asked for it when I've gone back or had the instructor ask what stage I'm at (..... I guess that answers my first question, in that I am still a newbie). Perhaps they could record something on their database if you indicate that you're likely to go again, this could then be given to the next instructor to confirm progress and wind speed etc (I was convinced on my last visit that the speed was slower than my 4th flight and therefore I didn't feel there was any improvement (or as much fun) as I really struggled to gain any vertical movement (any instructors on here feel free to tell me I'm talking crap but when you're spending so much money, for so little time it's vital to feel you've got the best out of it.

That's all for my rambling  for now, I'll try attaching a pic of 'the boy' on his 1st flight, he was up above the perspex last week!

Hopefully I'll bump into you at one of the tunnels soon.