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OHCHUTE

Are wind tunnels expanding locations?

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My casual observation from watching a whole host of tunnels go up in the years since I've been skydiving (only Orlando & Perris were operating in the U.S. when I started).

-There will be lots of rumored locations
-Some may even have fancy conceptual drawings and specific development locations
-Many (most?) of those won't go anywhere for various reasons (usually involving $$)
-Some will actually move beyond the conceptual phase

Until a location is actually acquired and ground is broken, don't count on getting a tunnel in your town. But, once ground is broken, expect the following:

-Around the time of groundbreaking, a planned opening date will be announced. Ignore this date because it means nothing. :D
-At some point, something tunnelesque will appear on the site. Start paying more attention around this point.
-Around this time a revised opening date might be announced. This one may be more realistic, but still assume that it is probably a few months earlier than the date on which anyone from the public can actually fly in the tunnel.
-At some point, said tunnel will be fully operational and open to the public. The good news is that throughout all of those delays you've had more time to put away money that you will immediately hand over to the tunnel owners ... that day and for the rest of your life.

"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

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All the new designs use electric engines in a pull configuration. They use propellers but more to pull the air though the chamber and not to push you up. Go to the tunnel up in Boston or in NC since those are the closest to DC at the moment to see what a modern tunnel design looks like.
Yesterday is history
And tomorrow is a mystery

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Just wondering about trend? How about use of wind tunnels. Is use up?
We could use one here in Balt/Wash area!



You will be getting one there. iFly has 50 tunnels planned in the next 5 years.



There is no way 50 tunnels are opening in the next 5 years. I would be surprised to see 5 more open.

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Just wondering about trend? How about use of wind tunnels. Is use up?
We could use one here in Balt/Wash area!



You will be getting one there. iFly has 50 tunnels planned in the next 5 years.



There is no way 50 tunnels are opening in the next 5 years. I would be surprised to see 5 more open.



In a word: This.

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Just wondering about trend? How about use of wind tunnels. Is use up?
We could use one here in Balt/Wash area!



You will be getting one there. iFly has 50 tunnels planned in the next 5 years.



LMAO. This coming from the same guy who told me that he believes Austin will get a tunnel when he sees the fans blowing.

Logistically I don't see anyway possible to build 10 tunnels a year in the next 5 years.

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There are really only so many places that can support a tunnel. I would see a tunnel working in Chicago and Atlanta. I'm sure there are more areas it would work but it would never survive in most places just off of the general public and a few smaller dz's that are local.

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IFLY; I will take one for the team and give up my backyard.
You may build it here, 15 mins from elsinore or perris.
All i ask for in return is a statue of me flying head down taking a dock with george washington, and we are to be in party attire. contact my butler to iron out the details.

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If it is possible to compare with Europe (where I think skydiving is a smaller sport compared to USA?):

The last three years, the time I've been in the sport, there have opened tunnels in Czech Republic, Norway, Spain, Russia and a small one in Denmark.

Other than that there's three tunnels in the UK: Manchester, Milton Keynes, Bedford and a new one opening next summer in Basingstoke.

There are also a tunnel in Germany, and another one in Russia.

I believe there's also one being opened in France next year.

There might be small tunnels and others that I don't know of.

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There are really only so many places that can support a tunnel. I would see a tunnel working in Chicago and Atlanta. I'm sure there are more areas it would work but it would never survive in most places just off of the general public and a few smaller dz's that are local.



I don't buy that argument. Seattle's tunnel is making money hand over fist and our metropolitan area is the 15th largest in the US with roughly 3.5 million people.

As skydivers our ego tends to overvalue ourselves. We think we fly better than we do, and we think the businesses that we patronize worship the ground we walk on.

We think we're more important to a DZ's bottom line than we really are, and we think a wind tunnel waits with bated breath for us to show up and fly.

Fact is DZs and wind tunnels make most of their money from wuffos, and unless the owner has a bleeding heart for the "community" any business man or woman would lock skydivers out if they thought they could fill every single slot or every single minute of tunnel time with a whuffo paying full price.

From the business point of view, skydivers are only good for filling space that wouldn't be filled by a full paying customer. A little money is better than no money, even though we're incredibly needy and demanding compared to the whuffo that is happy to fork over top dollar to make the cattle call.

Their 225 dollar tandem trumps your 25 dollar jump and their 30 dollar a minute tunnel flight trumps your 15 dollar a minute flight.

You can do a back of the napkin analysis of any metropolitan area and consider that any location with a large enough population will provide enough repeat customers to not only make the business viable but profitable with or without skydivers.

We like to think of the tunnel as this awesome thing that is a Very Serious tool for stretching the boundaries of "human flight".

But it's not. It's an amusement park ride that people will pay to ride just like they pay to ride roller coasters.

That the tunnel also is kinda handy for skydivers is incidental.

If you consider that Seattle easily supports one tunnel at 3.5 million people, then you could argue that Chicago could support two, LA could support three, and NYC could support five.

So in addition to Seattle, there are 10 NEW tunnels (-1 for existing SF Bay) that could probably be successful in the #14 Phoenix to #4 Dallas markets, plus 2 in Chicago, one more in LA to make three, and 5 in NYC/NJ.

That is 19 right there. If you lower the bar to 2 million metro population, you add 14 more markets (#29 Kansas City through #16 Minneapolis) for a total of 33.

Is 50 a big number? Yes. To get there you would need to believe that roughly 1.5 million people could support a tunnel (I'm looking at you Nashville, TN).

Doesn't sound that far fetched to me. Just because something is possible doesn't mean it will happen. However all that is missing there is motivated businessmen with funding to make it happen.

It won't be 50 but I would bet it is going to be more than 5.

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Fact is DZs and wind tunnels make most of their money from wuffos



Yeah no shit dude, anyone who has been around for a few years would know this.

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all that is missing there is motivated businessmen with funding to make it happen.



^This is your big problem and why you won't see them popping up in every state.

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