The Best Ways to Feel Like You're Flying Without Dying

Ziplining

A little - known law of physics states that if you simply take any nipper ’s toy – say a slide or rophy jive – and make it really , really huge , adults will go nuts for it . And ziplining , in particular , has blown up lately as operator are creating spans that run over a knot tenacious and a thousand feet off the ground , allow you to reach speeds over 60 mph .

Special skills required : Ziplining requires about as much technical know - how as sit on your lounge – just hang there and enjoy the ride . How to not die : Almost all ziplining stroke fall out when the great unwashed fall off the launch platform before even cut short into the line – which is more unenviable than tragical . Best spot to do It : The universe ’s second biggest zipline is Alaska ’s Icy Strait , which launch you from a whopping 1,300 feet above the landing place , with survey of snow - crest mountains and Alaskan wilderness as far as the eye can see . Puerto Rico ’s La Bestia – or The Beast – is one of the creation ’s highest ziplines , and the retentive and fastest in the western cerebral hemisphere , lather you through 4,700 groundwork of rainforest canopy at 65 miles per hour .

Paragliding

A sort of mod - day hang gliding , paragliding allows you to vaporize up to 10,000 foot off the dry land , using a nimble chute as a sort of gargantuan twain of wings to pounce and soar like a bird . While thermals can deliver the rummy encouragement up , you ’re essentially floating very easy to the ground the entire metre and a flight can last several hour .

particular acquisition required : get wind to fell a paraglider is almost as complex as learning to pilot a modest aeroplane . But for your first several flights , you ’ll be sit in the lap of an teacher , anyway . Do n’t care , it ’s only clumsy the integral time . How not to die : Become an amateur meteorologist – almost all paragliding fatalities are the result of an unexpected change in twist and weather , which cause the slideway to collapse . Best place to do it : Southern California has one of the high concentrations of paragliding schools , with un - intimidating flights over the beach along the Pacific Ocean . Up the intensity in Lake Tahoe , where paragliding flight of stairs take you over the 2nd deepest lake in the U.S. , and put you eye - tier with the summits of the High Sierra .

Skydiving

One of the chilling experience in the human beings somehow remains one of the secure and easiest kick for the average Joe . After jumping out of that plane from around two mi up – strapped to an instructor if it ’s your first metre – you ’ll freefall for up to 30 seconds , which is heap of time to get GoPro footage of your cheeks doing that thing that makes your face reckon like a windsock . If all goes well once you pull the ripcord , it ’s another several minutes of gently float to earth . The self-aggrandizing challenge is attempt to search coolheaded while sticking the landing , which is essentially unacceptable with someone strapped to your back .

Special skills required : Be less than 250 pounds . Not certain that ’s a particular attainment but if you ’re correct on the sharpness , we urge cut lunch – most commercial chutes are not designed for your average line backer . How not to die : heed to every word your instructor say , unless he starts mutter something about a malfunction – then just do whatever it takes to zone out and go to your glad place . Best position to do it : It ’s all about the views , right ? So why skydive over cornfield and flatlands ? Instead , point to the island of Oahu , where you may skydive in boxers and a t - shirt , with a razz - eye opinion of the cobalt blue Rand - rimmed Hawaiian Islands .

Zero-G Flights

earlier used to prep astronauts for quad travel , zero gravity flight copy lightness by descend in a steady plane at such a speed that passengers float in the fuselage – you ’re fundamentally skydive without a chute , in an hold in quad . The carpenter’s plane themselves are actually just whole hollowed out commercial jets , with padding on the walls , and they do a series of terrifying 30 - second nosedives that grant you to reach terminal velocity and ice-cream soda .

extra skills required : These woodworking plane are actually more commonly know as vomit comets so it ’s middling helpful if you have a gamey threshold for tum - turning maneuvers . Though , drift puke does look pretty nerveless . How not to die : Zero gm flight are as safe as any commercial flight . However , bomb to strap in when the plane transitions from its descent to the crushing gravity of the upgrade and you ’ll fundamentally rag doll around the plane . Best office to do it : While NASA itself used to proffer Zero thousand flights to the public , they stopped eld ago . The only companionship presently offering them in the U.S. is Zero G , which operates out of eight major aerodrome across the country .

Bungee Jumping

trust it or not , the only affair more frightening than falling thousands of feet is falling hundred of feet , seeing the flat coat come hurtling toward you alarmingly fast the entire time . A thrill that see back to a time when tribes used to wrap vine around their ankles and jump from trees , the technical school has issue forth a farsighted way , as more and more and more bungee cord operators strain to outdo each other . It ’s now potential to do a 764 - metrical foot start , and calibrate the bungees to admit you to duck just your head in a river below .

Special skills necessitate : Bungee jump is fundamentally a high - diving and a few sessions at your local pool could help you dial in that perfect swan or three-fold gainer . How not to die : This is not the metre to suck in your intestine and plane a few pound off your weight when fill out the waiver forms – you do not want them strapping your 200 - pound figure to a bungee electric cord built for a 180 - pestle . Best place to do it : Niouc Bridge in the Swiss Alps is the mellow bridge jump in Europe ( 620 foot ) , in a arresting natural background . For something all dissimilar , take on the tall bungee cord saltation in the world from Macau Tower , 764 ft above the cityscape and pike of China ’s Las Vegas .

BASE Jumping

While the median person may not know that BASE is an acronym for Bridge , Antennae , Span , Earth – the four things these adrenaline junkies launch themselves off of – pretty much everyone do it by now that BASE jump is about as safe as coggle a surfboard into a tsunami . The ultimate adrenaline athletics call for jumper to leap from relatively low high and pull out their slideway before it ’s too late – it ’s illegal almost everywhere , the margin for error is non - actual , and BASE jumpers themselves are disappearing faster than blackened rhino .

Special skills required : It ’s a complete sky up over which is more important here : the courage of a Navy SEAL or the intelligence quotient of an actual stamp . How not to die : simpleton : the higher the jump , the more fourth dimension you have to deploy your parachute properly . But , too high , and it ’s just a round-eyed skydive . Best position to do it : While there are more BASE jumping human death in Switzerland ’s beautiful Lauterbrunnen Valley than anywhere else in the universe , its famous cliff also go on to be a popular spot to memorize – two stats which seem somehow related to . Here in the U.S. , the 876 - foot New River Gorge Bridge in West Virginia is a popular blot , even hosting a legal jump for one day each year in October , which draws century of BASE enthusiast .

Wingsuit Flying

Wingsuit flying is the one freefall on this list in which just take in TV of it can be a terrifying experience – probably due to the fact that many of those videos terminate with a osseous tissue - crunching splat . Wingsuits fundamentally move around humans into flying squirrels , offering the closest experience to genuine flight without mechanical aid . The hi - technical school case allow a pinafore to not only freefall for longer , but also incubate length – a flight can last up to nine mo and incubate over four mile . The technology in the suits themselves has been honed to such a precision that BASE wingsuiters are flying through natural arch , narrow gorges , and within inches of the ground going a hundred Swedish mile per hour .

Special accomplishment required : Wingsuiters are typically expert skydiver as well as expert BASE sweater , as training typically begins with normal skydiving freefalls before graduating to lower more technical leap . In other words , set out now and you should be quick for your first wingsuit trajectory in about 2020.How not to cash in one’s chips : Make certain the closest you ever get to wingsuit fly is follow it on YouTube . Even then , make certain your core is in top shape . well berth to do it : The European Alps and Yosemite National Park have been the site of many of the most famous wingsuit trajectory – as well as the site of the play ’s most spectacular fatalities .