Yesterday (May 6) I got the chance to go on a flight of a different type.

It's a freight plane (Boing 727), with only 27 passenget seats in the back. The rest (about 90ft) is all open. Imagine a mid-sized plane usually 3 seats either side, but no seats in it at all. The flight plan is to fly out of San Jose, go out over the pacific to a dedicated 100 mile long area for this plane to fly from 24,000ft upto 32,000ft and back down again, repeatedly, with occasional level flights. Like a big rollercoaster.

Yes, you've guessed, to simulate zero gravity! Well... at least for about 30 seconds at a time on the "peaks" of the flight.

So we sign in, they give us a talk, and I'm all prepared with what I want to do. A list of 12 things from juggling (or at least trying to), handstands, pushups, flips, flying like superman, drinking water, blowing air inside a bubble of water (with a straw), rotating my arms to see if I can rotate my body without touching the walls, I'm sure there was more...

We're split into 3 teams of 9 people each, have a final talk, get wanded by the TSA, and go out to the plane to get some photos taken, outside the plane: www.dongrays.com/images/view.cgi I'm the 4th from the left.
We get on the plane, and so do the other 2 teams.
No windows, but it's ok as there is plenty of room inside the plane, I was in the aisle seat anyway. Take off (lots of cheers), and in flight (no movie or snacks) they take our shoes, and give us colored socks (to match our teams colors). This I guess is so we don't kick anyone!

We get to the designated place, and we have a big group photo (or 3), and that'll be sent to each of the passengers (along with all other photos and some video footage). We then go to our teams designed 30ft spot. Being in the gold team, we get the front of the plane, which is nice since you can use the wall (to the pilots) to lean on, or whatever. But to get into the rollercoaster the plane has to pull up hard and while doing that we all experience almost 2g, and it's a rule to laydown, if you didn't you'd fall much faster, twice as fast, but with acceleration I think that means 4 times the speed hitting the floor. I believe the equation of energy is ½mv² so twice the velocity means 4 times the energy. Ouch!
You could feel being twice as heavy, mostly, but then after 30 seconds or so, the crew call out "Martian 1", which means the flight is going over the top of the flight curve in such a way that we all feel about one third of gravity. I weight 180lbs, so I felt I weighed 60lb, but with the same strength!
I did pushups (and one handed), and even just standing you could feel how light you were made by the flight. But 40 seconds was all too quick, the plane was in a dive and had to pull up again, so we quickly had to lay down for the heavy part of the flight (1.8g actually).
The next 3 plane arcs were lunar gravity simulations, where everyone felt one sixth their weight. I did a handstand and pushed off to do a flip in a ball and landed on the floor on my butt, but it was ok, very light fall being only one sixth and a slow fall too. But I totally lost my sense of direction, even though I was sitting, the plane looked like it was tilting. Afterward the mechanics of the effects of less gravity in my ears was explained, as to why possible my brain thought I was tilting forwards. But one or two seconds, and my brain understood what is up again. I did some "superman" flights to the camera, so hopefully they came out well. We'll see.

Then after those 5 low gravity simulations (1 mars, 4 moon), the plame did some level flight, for about 5 minutes. We chatted, and I looked at my list to see what I was going to do, and I'd missed out juggling, but it's like being on the stage for the first time, you get "dumbstruck", so it's nice to have the zero G "coaches" to tell you what to do, otherwise you'd forget and just laugh and jump a bit, not that you're not giggling anyway! It feels like being a kid experiencing a slide or swing for the first time. Wow!

So after the 5 minutes, again we lay down as the plane pulls up, but this time over the top they fly a zero gravity simulation! You are floating, I wave to the camera, do some superman floating, but again am dumbstruck about doing any "tricks". This happens 3 times, floating around, etc. On the third of those three 0g flights, I did look down the plane to see everyone else, which probably was a mistake, as I felt myself burp, and it didn't taste nice. Once down and in level flight, I was sweating a bit, and got some water and they suggested a cloth to dry my face. So for the 0g 4, 5, and 6 flights, again, fun, but now I had water I tried to make bubbles of floating water, and squeezing the plastic bottle, I got a big bubble coming out, so released the bottle and the water went back in! So I grabbed my straw, sucked some out, and blew it into the air, but in blowing it, the water made a bubble which was floating away from me! I tried to chase it, but I was floating and my legs kicked the air and not the floor, and the water floated into the ceiling and I couldn't reach it! I was hoping to blow air into it - no chance!
On the sixth 0g arc, I thought to try the "zen" pose, and just float. They said going upside-down is great, as the ceiling becomes the floor, the floor looks like a ceiling, and everyone is upside-down and you're the only right-side up one! So I did this.
      Big mistake!
Being at the front of the plane I got to look down at everyone. It felt like looking down an elevator shaft, and seeing everyone floating upside down, right side up, towards me, away from me, etc, and I wasn't falling either. Extremely confusing! And my stomach agreed it was not right, so felt I must have eaten poison berries as that's the only way I'd be hallucinating (so thinks my caveman stomach), so I started to vomit. Not wanting to make a mess, I kept my mouth closed and waved to the coach, who had a sickbag to hand (I found in my confused state I couldn't get mine out of my pocket)! Luckily this was a few seconds from the pull out, and I sat (no I didn't lay down) being sick into this bag! Luckily the next part was a 5 minute level flight. So after having some wet cloths to cool me down, they asked if I'd be ok for the next four 0g flights? I knew I wouldn't be, so I asked to go back to my seat. Somebody else was already in their seat, perhaps not feeling so good. They gave me a big white 30 gallon trash bag, as being in 0g, a small bag isn't as effective as keeping everything in the bag. But I didn't need it. Most of my next "heaves" were dry, since I'd only eaten a little before the flight, knowing I might feel not so good.

So now I'm in my seat, I tighten my belt, and we're back to heavy G curve, which was really good, I held my hands out to feel the extra weight, I could feel the heaviness on my seat, and even my neck could feel my head twice as heavy. Back to 0g. I didn't feel so bad, so I got a bubble of water to float in front of me, and drank it with a straw, but I must have sucked too hard, or maybe I wasn't still ok, as it made me throw up again! Maybe it didn't help I could still see everyone at crazy angles in the open part of the plane?
Through 0g flights eight and nine, I just relaxed, but in doing so I could feel the plane making corrections to try to keep as good as a 0g path as they could, not only up and down, but forward and back, and side to side, to keep a perfect 0g through corrections. I could also feel the plane slowly turning through the heavy G parts too. I couldn't tell how fast it was turning, but there was some angular momentum happening that I could feel sitting, strapped tightly into the plane, unlike when lying down I couldn't feel that, just heavier.

When the last 0g (or number 10 - or arc number 15 since there were 5 low gravity flight first) was happening, I do remember, having a little "dry heave", and maybe in reaction to being so relieved when they levelled out for the last time.

Everyone came back to their seats, we got our shoes back, although I initially didn't want to lean down to tie my laces, until closer to landing, just in case. We also were given a snack too.

Off the plane, where we each got off one at a time, we had our individual photo taken with the CEO of the zero G company www.nogravity.com as we step back onto solid ground. Then back to the airport terminal, some celebration drinks and food (I just had crackers), we each got a nicely framed photo of the group (see above www.dongrays.com/images/view.cgi ) but also a certificate www.dongrays.com/images/view.cgi of completion. We also got a logo'd sports bag and a T-shirt (or two).

I chatted with the crew about what had happened with me, and apparently 40% or 50% of astronauts had experienced sickness at one time or other, but as the 0g flights are started out with low gravity flights, and are interspaced with level flight, this reduces sickness down to virtually none (ok: 2 out of 27 for our flight, but the other person may not have been actually sick - I didn't ask). If I do it again, I can get some heavy motion sickness medicine from a doctor, which would help out. I gave the flight attendent a big hug and really thanked her a lot, since she was looking after me at the end.

If someone even said I'd feel sick, would I have not done it! No way. Of course I'd do it.
Would I do it again. Yes. But only with something that might prevent the sickness. OR... I'd do things that didn't mean seeing everyone else in all directions floating and being crazy! BUT... someone said they felt bad the first time, but they got used to it, so the next time it was all ok.

It was amazing. I would tell everyone to try it, if they get the chance.

I'll post the photos once I get them.