Outdoor skydiving can present numerous annoyances, including cumbersome parachutes, hurtful eagle taunts, and the smug back-seat driving of your tandem partner. Freefall in peace with today's Groupon: for $31, you get two one-minute indoor-skydiving flights at Paraclete XP SkyVenture, including an introductory flight course, gear rental, and flight certificate, in Raeford (a $63 value).
Utilizing the same technology used to train military skydivers, Paraclete XP SkyVenture re-creates the pulse-racing plunge of a free-fall through an enclosed vertical wind tunnel. Blasting air up in a seamless vertical column, SkyVenture's wind tunnel creates a flight chamber of smooth wall-to-wall airflow that grants you the temporary gift of flight without arm enchantments or the risk of melting waxen wings. Prior to liftoff participants receive video and personal instruction, then don their gear for two minute-long flights—the equivalent of three skydives from 13,000 feet or one ejection from Mount Olympus.
SkyVenture is the premier indoor-skydiving facility in North Carolina, and aspiring aerial navigators need no previous experience. Each flight's airflow is controlled by a professional instructor and can be experienced in full view of family and friends, so feel free to strike stirring airborne poses such as the Superman, the flying squirrel, and the Heisman.