Inside the iFly tunnel, a woman bounced up and down in the air without touching anything. A monitor read the wind at around 135 mph.
iFly Loudoun actually participates with Loudoun County Public School's STEM program. So on Thursday, an instructor showed us one of their demonstrations: how wind impacts a basketball and water inside their wind tunnel.
Ernie Torres is a iFly Loudoun Flight Instructor, who is well aware of the winds expected throughout Friday.
"That doesn't sound too scary for you?” said WUSA 9 Reporter, Stephanie Ramirez. Torres laughed saying, “No, not at all..when we're flying in here, it's just about twice that it take to pick me up."
However Torres says it could pick-up a basketball and a small child, if a strong-enough wind gust is concentrated like it is in this tunnel.
WUSA 9’s Stephanie Ramirez suited-up. That meant removing the work heels. We don’t want any flying projectiles!
Once inside the tunnel with around 65-70 mph winds, Ramirez says it wasn't her most flattering look. Her fly suit flapped everywhere and her hair flew right up.
She had to forcefully hold her arms down.
The basketball floated like a feather.
Next Torres had his team drop wind speed down to around 25 – 30 mph and poured water. Instead of going right down, the water immediately formed into several droplets and floated upwards.
"That's why sometimes it looks like it's raining side-ways, because the wind's blowing fast as it falls,” said Torres.
A younger boy played around, practicing spins in the tunnel at around 87 mph.
It looks fun inside, but outside, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) study of Straight-line Wind Gusts says it only takes 58-74-mile-per-hour winds to break large tree limbs, knock-over shallow-rooted trees, turn over semi-trucks and even knock over billboards.
"If you don't have to go anywhere, don't,” said Torres.
We know where he'll be!
