It's 45 seconds of pure excitement and a rush of air gusting over 150 miles per hour -- a skydiving simulator.
According to SAC president Michelle Williams, about 65 students dared to throw themselves over an airplane propeller spinning at a speed of over 600 MPH Wednesday at the SAC sponsored X-Treme Air simulator on the UC Lawn -- and this journalist was one of them. Williams said the event was scheduled from 12-6 p.m., but closed about 2:30 due to the noise disturbing classes.
"We had done this simulator at least two times before but this semester we moved the location so more students could participate," Williams said. "Unfortunately, we did not realize it would be so loud and bother students in class."
University Involvement chair for SAC Brooke Miles said Dr. Ralph Faudree, U of M's Interim President, ordered the engines to be shut off due to complaints from professors in surrounding buildings that the noise was too loud for them to hold class.
The brave souls who did participate pulled on a coverall flight suit, goggles, a helmet and ear plugs. Then they climbed into the blown-up cage and waited for one of the three air technicians to pull them on the area over the propeller.
Road manager and part- owner of X-Treme Air John Tanis said the propeller used is an actual airplane propeller and it is designed to blow people into the air from underneath.
"I've actually jumped out of an airplane 1,248 times," Tanis said. "The only difference between this simulator and the real thing is that the world isn't flying at you at two miles a minute."
But for a nonprofessional skydiver like myself, the world flying at me at any speed is terrifying.
After overhearing Tanis tell another student about some of his experiences learning to fly in the simulator, I was beginning to question where I got the guts to even stand in line for this event -- much less actually do it.
However, Stephanie Brazzell, a junior criminology/criminal justice major, calmed my nerves.
"This is my fourth time doing this," she said. "Don't worry, it's tons of fun. It feels like the world stops for a minute."
So, I choked down my fear and climbed on in with six other students. One by one we simulated a free fall ... and yes, I lived.
Freshman pre-occupational therapy major Stacey Lehman also survived.
"I was weightless and I was screaming but it (the propeller) was so loud, I couldn't even hear myself," Lehman said. "A lot of my friends have done the real thing, and I've never had the guts. I figured this was as close as I'll ever get. It was so cool."
