iflyworld.co.uk

Badly organised. Awful experience.

My 15 year old son was booked in for 2 flights at Milton Keynes. We arrived in plenty of time and were told to return half an hour before the flight for the briefing etc. which we did. This took 10 minutes including putting on the overalls, safety equipment etc. The instructor then sent us all to where the flights were taking place where we then sat for half an hour as that session ran over by 15 minutes. In the meantime my son was complaining how tight the helmet was. I offered to loosen it but he said the instructor had put it on him and that he had said it needed to be tight so it didn't come off. His session then started, however, there was a dad and a son who had booked 10 minute sessions each so they started with 2 minutes each, then one of the other participants had a 1 minute session, then it went back to the dad and son, who had another 2 minutes each and so on, so my son was waiting 14 minutes (in addition to the half hour before the session started due to the last one finishing late) before he got to try his first flight. He went in for the flight, the instructor went to do the additional bit with him where they fly up to the top and then suddenly he just pulled him out and finished the flight. We couldn't see that he had done anything wrong and my son looked completely shocked to be pulled out like that (bearing in mind, the boy doing the flights with his dad had been all over the place and yet the instructor still took him up to the top). He then asked the instructor to let him out and left the chamber. He told us he was in so much pain from how tight the helmet was and had been in agony waiting for his go. The only time he felt ok was in the chamber flying and he said he thought he was following the instructors instructions and couldn't understand why he'd been pulled out. When we took the hat and googles of him, there was a severe indentation around the back of his head where it had been, which was still there when we got home that evening (6 hours after the flight). This experience has totally put him off sky-diving or trying anything similar again. The instructor only did a 10 minute briefing with them all and then they had to sit in a room and wait for half an hour. If they had spare time, why didn't he check their equipment was on properly? My son asked him whether a different item was on properly and I saw the instructor say it was fine and he wasn't even looking at him. Was he just in a rush to eat his lunch? And to make everyone wait whilst the dad and son kept having their 4 minute slots was ridiculous. They should have had their own time slot. There were two younger boys in there waiting, one of which was in tears so it wasn't just my son who didn't enjoy the experience. I am so disappointed and wouldn't recommend this at all. You do not end up peacefully floating around like it shows you on the video. Most of the people we saw (the group before was huge) were bouncing off the sides or flipping over. Absolute rubbish. Don't waste your money.

Date of experience: Aug 21, 2023