Jonathon Conant teaches people to fly, without an airplane. He heads Trapeze School New York and two other schools that train aerialists. On a base level, his group teaches the rudiments of swinging on a trapeze to young adults seeking thrills and adventure, but Mr. Conant, who has more than a whiff of the New Age about him, prefers to think of his schools as “self-esteem factories.”

For Mr. Conant, who grew up working as a farmhand in the summer in the Pacific Northwest, the world stopped spinning in 1998 when he visited a Club Med and took his first swing on a trapeze. Before that, he had built a prosperous recording business in Boston. Suddenly, that seemed much too tame.

Mr. Conant returned from his Club Med outing with more than a tan. He had acquired an obsession.

His self-esteem had faltered as his office-bound lifestyle rendered him less fit and attractive, at least in his own mind. Hanging by his knees on a trapeze seemed, oddly, a reasonable way to get his life back on track.

However, there was no place in the Boston area where he could pursue his new love. So after he finished recording a large musical score, he sold his business, maxed out his credit cards, tapped his friends’ pockets, and built a trapeze rig in New Paltz, N.Y. His first school was born.

And then, as he tells it, the miracles began. The photographer George Holz, who is known for photographing athletes in the buff, drove by and was hooked by the spectacle. He took outstanding pictures of the instructors in action in the nude (cleverly featured and disguised on the school’s T-shirt).

More helpfully, Mr. Holz is also known for his work for Abercrombie & Fitch. Before long the trendy retailer approached Mr. Conant about doing an advertising shoot in Florida featuring his fliers. The timing was fortuitous. Mr. Conant was running short on funds, and was able to ask a hefty price for the ad shots.

Soon thereafter, he met Anne and David Brown, who became enthusiasts and investors, contributing much of the money necessary to take the expensive but inevitable next step – penetrating New York City. Mr. Conant approached this expansion with the confidence earned from having already developed one successful business. “We weren’t trapeze artists, we were businesspeople.”

After an extensive search, the group came to an agreement with Hudson River Park and began to build the large rig needed for a city venue. The school was built and staffed. The publicity blitz wasn’t over, however. Many fans of “Sex in the City” remember a 2003 episode in which Carrie, one of the leads, takes a lesson at Trapeze School New York. Al Roker and David Letterman followed.

Before long, the school was overwhelmed with customers. Prices for a two-hour session range from $47 to $67. Today, there is a three-week wait for a class, putting it in the same league as Per Se for New Yorkers who most want what they can’t have.

Classes tend to be filled with women between the ages of 19 and 35. However, men and women of all ages are drawn to the sport. Why?

Because, according to Mr. Conant, “you are doing something you didn’t think you could do. You have to abandon your concepts, and change your belief systems.” It seems that few people fly only once. Mr. Conant likens the experience to yoga: “People continue, not to become good or to turn into circus performers. It’s a lifelong process.”

Mr. Conant would be an exception. He actually did join a circus, working for a small outfit in Nicaragua while installing a rig in nearby Costa Rica. These days, he is focused on business performance, not the center ring. One concern is mediocre results at schools in Baltimore and Boston.

Another, more important issue is that his rig in New York is en plein air, costing the company dearly when it rains. Last year, Trapeze School lost more than half a million dollars because of bad weather.

His major effort today, consequently, is to build an indoor facility on Pier 40. The cost of the planned 107-by-60-foot space is probably about $2 million, and Mr. Conant is again seeking outside investors. The situation has become more acute because Hudson River Park is about to undergo renovations, and the existing rig will have to come down.

Given Mr. Conant’s enthusiasm for his new career, he will doubtless manage to build the all-weather facility. After that? Given the sport’s popularity, the sky’s the limit.