Mark Curtis tries skydiving, kind of. “AXIS Flight school is a skydiving school that offers dedicated skydivers the ability to expand their skills and knowledge. They offer one-on-one coaching along with a training facility for experienced jumpers. AXIS is in Eloy, Arizona, which is between Phoenix and Tucson, and also is an area that allows over 340 flying days a year due to the clear desert weather. Niklas Daniel and Brianne Thompson created AXIS after they both fell in love with skydiving and each other. They decided to open the school so that people who have a skydiving license can enhance their skills. The school was created to teach people how to jump with others, do tricks and a variety of other things. Daniel has loved skydiving ever since he first tried it at the age of 20. After that he knew he wanted to make a career out of it. “Skydiving in general has allowed me to carve out a niche for myself and I get to basically be my own boss,” Daniel said. “I get to meet a lot of interesting people from all walks of life and all over the world.”

One of the people he met was 12 News anchor Mark Curtis. Curtis and the rest of the Destination AZ crew ventured down to Eloy to experience what skydiving was like, without having to jump out of a plane. So Curtis entered the wind tunnel. A wind tunnel is a way to go indoor skydiving. Wind tunnels create a 150 mph vertical air column that a person can safely “float” on. This simulates what skydiving is actually like, minus jumping out of an airplane and deploying a parachute. Curtis got into a wind tunnel after a little direction from Daniel and Thompson and began indoor skydiving. “He was very open-minded. He was a good listener,” Daniel said.

He also added that Curtis picked up the indoor skydiving skills pretty quickly and was able to immediately apply those skills when he got in the wind tunnel. Curtis said he was in the tunnel altogether for about an hour but would take turns with other people and would only be in the tunnel for a few minutes at a time. Wind tunnel sessions are available at AXIS Flight School and can last for 15 minutes up to an hour. Be sure to watch Destination: AZ on at 7 p.m. on Feb. 27 to learn more about the beautiful places you can visit in Arizona.”