Sky Venture is an amusement park type facility with a difference and is located in Orlando, Florida.

Not quite an amusement park in the traditional sense, it nevertheless attracts thousands of visitors every year who enjoy experiencing new thrills in that it offers the closest experience to sky diving without ever having to jump out of a plane.

The amusement park basically consists of a wind tunnel and is so realistic that professional skydivers use it to practice their highly intricate manoeuvres. However, you don’t need to have any skydiving experience to give it a go and the amusement park facility is suitable for reasonably healthy beginners of all ages. 

The amusement park opened in Orlando in 1998 and was the first of many to be opened under the same ‘Sky Venture’ banner in countries all over the world. It was the vision of Bill Kitchen who was an expert in wind tunnels and the concept was so successful that it was taken up by the U.S. National Skydiving Team – Arizona Airspeed. One of the Airspeed members was the world champion skydiver, Alan Metni, who became Bill Kitchen’s partner in the business and, subsequently, bought him out of the amusement park business.

The Sky Venture amusement park experience begins in the classroom where you are given specific training by a flight instructor. This includes teaching you how to use your body within the tunnel and how to communicate using hand signals. After selecting your gear which includes flight suit, helmet, safety goggles and other pieces of equipment, you enter into the tunnel itself to fly with your instructor. Each visitor to the amusement park attraction gets two flight rotations which is equivalent to two actual skydives. 

Young and old alike enjoy this amusement park attraction. Grandparents can skydive with their grandchildren and even children as young as 3 years old can enjoy the experience at this amusement park facility, although under-18s require a parent or guardian to sign a waiver.  You can also purchase photographs and a DVD of your sky diving experience at the amusement park.

See also:
Amusement Parks: Naples Zoo at Caribbean Gardens - a Potted History
Amusement Parks: Lowry Park Zoo - a Potted History 
Amusement Parks: West Midlands Safari Park - a Potted History
Amusement Parks: The Flambards Experience - a Potted History