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cpoxon

32 foot (9.75 m) tunnel coming to Abu Dhabi?

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http://www.arabianbusiness.com/revealed-yas-island-open-100m-skydive-climbing-centre-649624.html

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Developer Miral announced on Wednesday plans to bring the world’s widest flight chamber and tallest indoor climbing wall to Abu Dhabi's Yas Island in 2018.

Visitors to the flight chamber will be able to mimic the experience of skydiving within an unmatched width of 32 feet, making it the world’s widest, Miral said in a statement.

CLYMB will also feature the world’s tallest indoor climbing wall, offering the chance to scale four walls of varying difficulty.
Alongside the flight chamber and climbing wall, CLYMB will include retailers, food and beverage outlets, and a space to host parties, Miral said.

Zublin Construction has been appointed by Miral as the main contractor to carry on the construction work which has already commenced on the site.

The $100 million project is expected to open its doors by 2018 and will be linked to the nearby Yas Mall, connecting CLYMB with even more of Yas Island’s entertainment and leisure offerings.

Mohammed Abdullah Al Zaabi, CEO of Miral said: "CLYMB project is an important and distinctive addition to the unique portfolio of destinations developed by Miral on Yas Island. With the world’s widest flight chamber, and tallest indoor climbing wall coming to Abu Dhabi, we will offer visitors the opportunity to enjoy exceptional experiences that combine excitement and adventure together.

“This announcement endorses our continuous commitment at Miral to develop and create leading destinations with the highest global standards on Yas Island."

Miral recently announced plans to make Yas Island one of the world’s top destinations for family fun attracting 48 million visits annually. Yas Island also looks to host 100,000 corporate travellers, and is projected to have 4,000 hotel rooms catering to various guest requirements.


Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

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iFly had some photos up a while ago of it in construction but they've rejigged their site and removed them. It looked huge.

Topped out I reckon it'd use about 6MW of power (about 8000 horsepower). You'd need deep pockets for solo flying but you could probably do 16 way dynamic flying in there. :P

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Found a related article in a cache

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December 11, 2015
The 32ft Tunnel

Indoor Skydiving is about to get a massive new addition. Imagine… Dynamic 8 way or 16 way FS in the tunnel. The dream is about to become your reality! The engineering team at SkyVenture, the world’s leading designer and builder of vertical wind tunnels, has created by far, the largest wind tunnel in the world. Mark Arlitt, VP of Engineering, had this to say,

“The immensity of the task of designing what will be by far the world’s largest vertical wind tunnel was daunting, but for the most experienced vertical wind tunnel design team in the world it was not a task too big. Teamwork was the key! During a brainstorming session that lasted for 3 straight days, the team came up with concept after concept that made it doable. One of the enabling concepts was to break many of the gigantic components down into smaller and simpler subcomponents that repeat and stack, using proven technologies from our existing wind tunnel designs. This saved a huge amount of engineering time, kept components easier to ship and install and all but ensures predictable performance.”

So what are some of the specs of this turbine titan?

32’ (9.75m) in diameter with 16 (!!!!) fans.
The Inlet Contractor, the funnel-shaped piece that connects the plenum to the flight chamber, is composed of 80 fiberglass pieces constructed into 3 tiers rising up 38’ (11.6m) to where it meets the glass flight chamber.

The Primary Diffuser, the piece above the flight chamber glass that widens out to effectively and evenly slow down the wind speed, is made of 2 tiers of 20 pieces of fiberglass.

The components are currently all being shipped to Abu Dhabi where they will be assembled starting in early 2016.

A tunnel this size certainly has implications on many levels.

On the Flyer side, we wonder:

How will the size of this tunnel affect the sports disciplines we currently have?

16 way Formation Skydiving has been a fixture of competition skydiving for years as two previously competitive 8-way teams joined together. With the opportunity to practice in a wind tunnel, will we see this discipline increase in popularity? As we have seen records in 4 and 8 way FS smashed in the past few years, we are sure to see the same in 16 way.

How will the rules need to be re-written for Artistic events to utilize all this available flying space? What about new disciplines, like Dynamic 8 way? Is there a possibility to fly lines with 7 other people? Or is there interest 4 way FreeFly?

And on the Instructor side:

The tunnel Instructors will be trained by the IBA and it is the duty of the IBA to prepare how they will be trained and what processes may need to be modified. We asked Rusty Lewis, Director of Safety and Training, for his thoughts.

How will a tunnel this size change the way you train instructors to spot?
I would say right now, most of what we do will remain the same, largely due to the fact that it works and the system we train is robust, not discounting the fact that every time a new tunnel design is produced and starts operating there’s certainly amount of “new territory” to explore. No doubt that this will occur once the 32’ design is open and available for us to run some tests.

We are planning to spend some time in the new facility to evaluate how we currently train Instructors and we will see then what needs to change immediately and what can run its course and, in time, what adjustments will need to be made.

What kind of rules can we expect for teaching first-time flyers? Will instructors be able to let go of their students?
I think a lot of what we see today will still remain as we get more familiar with the new design and its intricacies, it will allow us to adapt our current system where necessary.

Part of training new Instructors is teaching them how to understand how students react in the airflow. Over the years that we have been providing training courses, it has allowed us to collect a lot of data based upon real scenarios. When we deliver the message to new Instructors, we aim to provide the tools in order for them to feel comfortable releasing students when it is appropriate to do so and under the right circumstances. I believe that even in a larger facility, this will still be the mind set for the staff. As long as the criteria is met for flyers to be released, then they will be.

Will multiple instructors be able to safely take in different students at once?
That’s a tough question to answer right now. We have experimented in the past in other facilities to see the feasibility of doing something like this and although not impossible, it is tricky. Each student is very unique with how their body adapts and flies in the wind. Matching two people together for the sake of similar wind speeds is one hurdle and typically the easiest… matching people that have the same reactions while flying is the hardest part. With that said, we will be doing some testing to see what may or may not be possible once we can get in the wind!



Anxious to fly in this behemoth? Stay tuned to tunnelflight.com for more information!


Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

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http://www.constructionweekonline.com/article-44112-abu-dhabi-indoor-skydiving-venue-50-complete/

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Yas Island’s CLYMB venue, which will house the world’s widest flight chamber and tallest indoor climbing wall by 2018, is now 50% complete.

The new attraction, which was announced late last year, will include a flight chamber with a width of 9.75 metres and what will be the world’s tallest indoor climbing wall at a height of 43 metres.

CLYMB will also include retailers, food and beverage outlets, and a space to host parties. It will also be linked to other attractions on Yas Island.

Mohamed Abdullah Al Zaabi, CEO of Miral, said: “The project is now 50% completed and is on track for a 2018 opening.


“It will include a very futuristic design and will be connected to Yas Mall and Ferrari World through an air-conditioned tunnel, creating a fully indoor experience.”

As part of its strategy to position Yas Island as a top 10 leisure destination by 2022, Al Zaabi explained that Miral aims to develop its attractions to be accessible all year round to provide comfort to visitors even during the hot summer months.

Miral also announced this week that its Warner Bros Abu Dhabi theme park is 60% complete and will feature six themed areas to be completed by 2018.



Doesn't indicate whether work on the wind tunnel has been started on not though.
Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

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I'll love to see instructors chasing firsttimers over 10 meters tunnel. It will be great fun to watch. Maybe compared to forthcoming Stockholm tunnel for wingsuiters.

Actually nobody needs tunnel this big (maybe except 16-way belly), there is no sport discipline for that, but hey, it's Abu Dhabi.

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I'll love to see instructors chasing firsttimers over 10 meters tunnel

H-mm same as in 4 meters - you walk close to flyer just less stops and changing directions)

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Actually nobody needs tunnel this big (maybe except 16-way belly), there is no sport discipline for that,


I need it!
Fuck sport! There is fun!
Why drink and drive, if you can smoke and fly?

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So I saw some mention of how much power it would take to run it. Does anyone know what that would translate to in terms of how much it would cost per hour? Sure a 16 way could afford it, but if you're doing 4 way or something it might be a lot more expensive than using a smaller one.

It's just a general question regarding huge tunnels in general, not this one in particular.

[Edit]You want to talk politics, go to Speaker's Corner. This is your one warning - cpoxon[/edit]

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