Now in operation for one year, Skyward is a high-standard skydiving-simulation facility utilizing a specially-built vertical wind tunnel found within the city's historic industrial zone on Csepel Island. Here anyone can experience soaring weightlessness under carefully controlled circumstances. Naturally this piqued our interest, so we visited them: despite our clumsiness, it was awesome – we might just see a new hobby for the city's adrenaline junkies hovering on the horizon.

Wind tunnels were originally built as an experimental facility used in aerodynamic research to study the effects of air moving past solid objects. However, as a result of humans’ addiction to stimulus, we discovered that it is ridiculously fun when wind turbines blow our bodies upwards, thereby mimicking weightlessness.

Skyward was built one year ago in Budapest’s historic industrial zone of Csepel Island, where anyone can experience the sensation of skydiving under controlled conditions, with the help of professionals. However, using this facility for flying – or rather, hovering – is not as easy as it might seem. We naively thought that floating in midair is a breeze, and that even a child could do it. We were correct about one of those assumptions...

But let’s start at the beginning. Flying around starts with dressing up: we get special overalls, a helmet, and goggles, and we can leave our shoes on only if they fully enclose our feet and can be fastened firmly enough so that we do not lose them. Changing is followed by a half-hour coaching session, where we learn about the proper airborne posture and the physics of wind, and since we cannot hear each other once inside the wind tunnel, we also have to learn a few hand signals. At this point we think we are ready for takeoff, but actually we have no idea what to expect.

Our initial ignorance extended to the functioning aspects of vertical wind tunnel, which is a relatively complicated tube that blows wind with the help of a 4,315-kilowatt engine capable of 2,000 horsepower, with a speed of up to 200 kilometers per hour. After the construction, fine-tuning the system took about a year, and everything is made in a completely unique way, based on the team’s own ideas.

After the briefing, we get some earplugs, put on the helmets, and head inside – which is not an easy task in and of itself if we want to do it correctly... but luckily, we are not left alone for a second, so technically we cannot mess up too much right at the beginning. In the first few seconds we discovered that the rushing wind is a rather whimsical force, and that instead of tensing up, we should relax in order to control our movements. Naturally we failed in following this instruction, as even the slightest movement or turn of the head results in a change of direction. Often we did not understand why we suddenly launched higher up, and occasionally wobbled around while trying to approach the safety net. In retrospect, it was a funny situation, but inside the wind tunnel, it was surprising (and a bit terrifying).

Our lack of confidence was even recorded: in the following video, you can see our ace photographer be dragged into the wind like a lifeless body after the professional’s presentation, followed by confused flailing and a few moments of triumph. By the way, Laci deserves applause for achieving the apparently rare feat of crashing down.

Anyway, the experience is super, and causes immediate euphoria and happiness – and it is probably even better if you are a real pro and can actually control your body in this unnatural medium.

Skyward owner and instructor Tamás Sztojcsev told us that it takes about ten or 20 hours of “flying” to get the hang of this activity, which is a rather serious total considering that we hovered midair for only about five minutes in this session. Still, it is not difficult to get hooked, so if you cannot stop thinking about flying, they recommend investing in the sports package (including many minutes of training and practice) instead of the 15,000-forint “one-time entry fee”.

Naturally, we also asked about the dangers, but it seems that there are none. The wind tunnel is recommended for people aged six to 70, but they once had a four-year-old girl flying, as well. (She was allegedly much more skillful than us.) It is also said that girls are naturally better at this thing, and so we encourage all enthusiastic girlfriends to join their significant other in the wind tunnel in case they buy a “flying trip” in Skyward for their birthday. We highly recommend this unique experience.