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flying indoors

KAVU athlete, Steph Davis takes us to Stockholm on her trip to the first indoor wingsuit tunnel in the world

By KAVU

September 26^th, 2018

indoor wingsuit flying in stockholm

There are moments in the lifetime of a sport when technology takes a leap, and it changes the playing field. Climbing gyms did that for rock climbing, snow machines did it for skiing, and the new mechanized wave pool is going to do the same for surfing. Last year, a group of engineers/skydivers came up with the genius concept of taking an abandoned wind tunnel, previously used for testing military aircraft designs, and modifying it to allow indoor wingsuit flying.

Wind tunnels exist around the world for regular skydiving - giant glass cylinders with high speed turbines creating airspeed inside them - and they've been another one of those revolutionary changes that has pushed the progression of freeflying to previously unimagined levels. But until now, no one had found a way to fly a wingsuit inside a confined glass box, because you generally need to go forward in a wingsuit, not just up or down.

Last year a small group of engineer/skydivers figured out a way to convert an old military testing facility in Stockholm into an indoor wingsuit tunnel, and they opened a business to allow, literally anyone, to try the experience of wingsuit flying.

And, in just a matter of months, wingsuit skydivers and BASE jumpers began to see the potential for improvement by training in the tunnel.

Inclined Project

There’s been so much buzz about the wingsuit tunnel that I was getting very curious about it! There’s only one in the world, it’s very far away from Moab, and it’s not cheap to fly in there…..but I had heard so many positive reports that Ian and I decided to check it out for ourselves.

Since we had plans in August to be in Europe for a wingsuit BASE trip to Switzerland already, we decided to make a 3 day detour to Sweden in the middle of the trip, fly in the tunnel as much as possible, and then return to the Swiss Alps.

time to fly

Once we arrived at Inclined Lab, I realized what an amazing opportunity it is to see this revolutionary concept coming to life in its very beginning.

Peter, the engineer mastermind behind the whole project, showed us the impressive structure and explained how it works: basically, it redirects the wind turbine into a large glass box with a very steeply inclined (fully padded) floor. There is a chicken wire screen on the front end and the back end of the box, to keep you from flying out the front or back.

keep it on a leash!

Even people who have never skydived ever, or never flown a wingsuit, can go into the tunnel, held safely in the center by ropes and pulleys, and experience the feeling of wingsuit flight for 2 minutes at a time—about the length of a regular skydive.

progression

Ian and I started like everyone else, on the ropes and pulleys, and then graduated to a rope leash clipped to a climbing harness.

Once the coaches were confident we could control ourselves and not ricochet wildly all around the tunnel, we were free to fly with no tethers and with others in the tunnel.

When skydiving, you have the whole sky around you, so even if your movements are not perfectly precise, you have plenty of room to slip around or even tumble if it comes to that.

Inside this glass box, you are surrounded by walls in every direction and pretty close to you, so your movements have to be extremely precise. Those walls also give you a unique, unmistakable reference point to get an understanding of just how much very tiny movements are affecting your motion.

Our coaches, Pilvi, Mari and Xander were not only fantastic at coaching us, but also astonishingly skilled at flying in this environment, and amazing to watch. I could absolutely see how investing in many hours of flight in this tunnel would radically refine anyone’s flying skills, and I’m really hoping they will bring one of these amazing training spaces to the US next.

A really unique moment in the ever-evolving story of wingsuit flight!

Footnotes

Steph Davis is one of the most inspirational people we know. Follow her KAVU adventures world wide where she's often accompanied by the talented Ian Mitchard and there superdog, Cajun!

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FootNotes

Steph Davis is one of the most inspirational people we know. Follow her KAVU adventures world wide where she's often accompanied by the talented Ian Mitchard and there superdog, Cajun!

Havasupai 2025

flying indoors

KAVU athlete, Steph Davis takes us to Stockholm on her trip to the first indoor wingsuit tunnel in the world

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