Here's some trivia about Appalachian Amusement Center you may find interesting:

Youngest Student Flier: 4 years old

Oldest Student Flier: 81 years old

Largest sustained formations: 7-way

Longest trip a customer undertook specifically to visit AAC: We had a group of fliers from Windsor, Ontario, Canada who said it was well worth the 10 hour drive each way, twice.

Heaviest Fliers: Both at our current limit of 75% power (120 MPH), a 240 pound flier flew well in a minimal jumpsuit. Mike at 210 pounds flies well on a warm day without a jumpsuit.

Longest continuous operation. On 10-29-2005 we ran for 6 hours continuously without going below 630 RPM. The power was adjusted between 630 and 677 RPM during the run.

8-24-2005 At aprox. 11:09 PM we felt an earthquake. It was a 3.8 The epicenter was approximately. 20 miles NE, 5 km deep in Hot Springs. The bleachers rattled and vibration could be felt. There was no damage.

On 10-4-2005, two of our regular fliers, Roxana Cox and Dawn Suiter, both present for our earthquake, joined the very exclusive "Four in Five" club by having flown in four different vertical wind tunnels in five days. You can read about Roxana's experience by clicking HERE

2-9-2006 At 2 PM John Suiter and Chris Landon flew at an air temperature of 29F. This is the coldest measured temperature during a flight and therefore a record. The only discomfort was john's face getting cold, as he prefers an open face helmet. John was throwing and catching snowballs. There was six inches of snow on the ground, the most since opening two years ago, another record. After flying they went skiing. It was the first time John ever flew and skied in the same day, another record. You can see a picture of AAC at noon that day by clicking HERE.

2-21-2006 Jack Tiffany flew AAC today. In 1964 Jack became the first person ever to fly in a vertical wind tunnel when he entered the air at the Flight Dynamics Laboratory 12 foot vertical tunnel.

3-4-2006 Today was the lowest reading for relative humidity we have seen since acquiring the weather station...8%. It was 45 degrees F.

4-18-2006 Today for the first time I used a new Simmons Yardage Master 1000 laser range finder to find out how high John Suiter flies. This instrument is accurate to one foot at distances over 30 feet. For accuracy I chose to lie down on the net as close to the jet as possible. Through the viewfinder I could not tell when John was at his highest, I simply aimed the device and tried to get readings. Probably because the net I was lying on was vibrating the range finder did not give readings as easily as usual. I did manage to get three readings. These three readings were 53 feet, and 59 feet twice. Because of the height of the device above my head this measurement should probably have been 60 feet. Afterward, three observers told me John was not as high as he often gets. John told me later that he could not fly as high as usual because of external wind. We will try again another time when the conditions are better.

7-15-2006 Today at 5 PM lightning struck, probably near the gate. That night a security camera went out. The next day a power protection device, and a circuit board in the motor drive failed.

12-8-2006  In the middle of a record setting three day cold spell, John Suiter flew for at least 30 minutes after dark at a temperature of 21 degrees F. He was performing for an independent movie producer. This is a record for the lowest temperature flown at our facility, and also for the most time flown at such a low temperature. There was 1/2 inch of snow on the ground for two days. The low at Asheville Airport this morning was 14 F. The record was 12 F. in 1977. The low the next morning was 13 degrees F., beating the 1976 record low of 14 F. The high was 48 F. The record high was 67 F., in 1970.

5-29-2007 I saw an amazing dust devil across the street from AAC. I first noticed the tube in the sky. I have never seen a dust devil with a visible tube. This dark tube was about 8 feet in diameter. The top of the tube was at about 150 feet above the ground. The bottom was at about 90 feet above the ground. The base disturbance was about 15 feet wide and moved about 20 feet south during the minute I watched the devil before it broke up.