Tunnels & bookings
Indoor skydiving happens at wind tunnels — vertical, recirculating air columns that simulate freefall. The IBA doesn’t run the tunnels itself. It accredits the people flying in them and the records of what they fly.
Tunnels on the platform
Each tunnel known to the IBA exists as a record on the platform: name, location, the staff (instructors, trainers) authorised to operate at it, and the booking system it uses (if any).
Tunnels matter on the platform for three reasons:
- Member affiliation — a flyer’s home tunnel is where most of their training happens and most of their flight time accrues.
- Instructor authority — an instructor authorised to approve skills at one tunnel isn’t automatically authorised at another.
- Booking integration — when a tunnel uses an integrated booking system, the IBA can validate members at check-in and (depending on the system) feed flight time back into the IBA’s logbook.
External booking systems
The IBA integrates with three external booking systems. They cover different parts of the world and offer different levels of integration:
| System | Coverage | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Convergence | USA tunnels | Live — full integration |
| FuzeMetrix (FM) | Tunnels outside the USA | Live — validation only |
| Tunn3l | Some USA tunnels and selected tunnels globally | Coming soon — not yet integrated |
Each integration carries the IBA’s brand differently: Convergence unlocks member-specific pricing through a custom affiliate flow; FuzeMetrix focuses on member identity validation at check-in; Tunn3l will join the platform once integration work lands.
What validation looks like (any system)
For all integrated systems, the basic check is the same: the tunnel’s booking software hands the IBA a flyer’s member ID and IBA PIN, and the IBA confirms the flyer is who they say they are and reports their current standing (level, currency status). This is what stops a non-member from showing up at a tunnel and pretending they’re qualified for advanced flight time.
What integration adds beyond validation
Validation is the table-stakes feature; integrations differ on what they do after the flight:
- Convergence — the tunnel and the IBA share more state. A flyer can use a member-specific booking link with discounted pricing tied to their booking history, and bookings flow back into the IBA so logbook entries can be created. See the Convergence page for the affiliate-link mechanics.
- FuzeMetrix — at present, validation is the headline job. Logbook follow-up at FM tunnels happens through other paths (manual member entry, instructor-side logging) rather than an automatic booking sync.
- Tunn3l — TBD when integration lands.
What happens for non-integrated tunnels
Plenty of tunnels around the world aren’t integrated with any of the three systems. For these, members log their own flight time manually and instructors approve it the old-fashioned way. The records are just as valid; the integration is a convenience, not a gate.
Why the IBA cares which system a tunnel uses
A few practical consequences:
- A member flying at a Convergence tunnel might see prices nobody else sees — that’s by design.
- A member’s PIN matters at every integrated tunnel, regardless of which system the tunnel runs.
- When Tunn3l comes online, members at those tunnels will start seeing the same validation experience they get from Convergence and FM, with whichever extra capabilities Tunn3l ships with.
For deeper detail on each integration, see the linked pages above. For the FuzeMetrix technical contract, see Tech docs → External integrations → FuzeMetrix (public).