Apparently there is a company that for 5 grand will take you for a ride in a B727 with a padded interior for 30 seconds of simulated weightlessness (really falling at the same rate as the airframe).
Shoot I can do it a lot cheaper than that.
Back when I was a newly licensed Private Pilot I flew to Mammoth Lakes with a couple of friends in a Piper Cherokee. I rode in the backseat. About a third of the way there (still over the valley) the pilot said, "Dave, take your seatbelt off." Then he proceeded to do a series of steep climbs and descents and wing-overs. I floated all over the backseat in about 5 second bursts. He called it "roller coasters."
+o( I'd be puking...yup. How did you stomach that??? :-/
They filmed the weightless parts of "Apollo 13" in the old padded military "Vomit Comet" that the real U. S. Astronauts had used for training. I think Tom Hanks said they did hundreds.
"The actors then traveled to Johnson Space Center in Houston where they flew in NASA's KC-135 Reduced gravity aircraft to simulate weightlessness in outer-space. While in the KC-135, filming took place in bursts of 25 seconds, the length of each weightless period that the plane performed. The filmmakers would eventually fly 612 parabolas which added up to a total of 3 hours and 54 minutes of weightlessness. Parts of the command module, lunar module and the tunnel piece that connected them were built by production designer Michael Corenblith, art directors David J. Bomba and Bruce Alan Miller and their crew to actually fit inside the KC-135 airplane. Filming in such an environment, while never done before for a movie, was a tremendous time saver. In the KC-135, the actors moved wherever they wanted, surrounded by floating props; the camera and cameraman were weightless so filming could take place on any axis from which a shot could be set up."
just this graphic makes me think twice!
Kinda reminds me of those rides where it spins real fast and then the floor drops out beneath you. I HATED that ride but Wendell loved it! ugh... +o(
I saw an Imax film at Huntsville Space Center this summer that had scenes of the astronauts using the vomit comet.
It looked pretty cool.
I've never suffered from motion sickness except for a couple of times when I brought it upon myself by wearing too warm clothes while not opening the cabin vents. One time when I was really active teaching students I was working all day on Saturdays flying, I had a root beer for lunch which was not a good idea. It's pretty embarrassing for the flight instructor that loses his lunch.
Maneuvers never caused me much trouble. I went on a war bird ride and I think the instructor with me was surprised how I still wanted to do aerobatics after almost an hour of rolls and loops. I guess that is pretty unusual. I did have to stop a student one time from doing spins. After he did about 6 or 7 I started to feel it a little so I said that's all for now.
In C.S. Forrester's Hornblower novels, his main character, Horatio Hornblower, suffers from sea sickness at least for the first several days of a voyage.
It is a mis-nomer to say "reduced gravity" or "weightlessness." Gravity is the same, it just happens that you are accelerating downwards (due to gravity) at the same rate as the airframe you are in so it appears you are weightless. I think the main effect occurs at the top of the flight when the pilot is pushing over and accelerating downwards. I would think on the downward but straight path you would eventually catch up with the airframe.
You get the same effect in a car when you go over a pronounced hump in the road. There is pronounced hump (probably for flood control) on 16th Street (State Route 160-old US40) going north out of downtown. If you goose the throttle on the way up you get a pretty pronounced semi weightless feeling on the way over.
> I've never suffered from motion sickness except for a couple of times when I brought it upon myself by wearing too warm clothes while not opening the cabin vents. One time when I was really active teaching students I was working all day on Saturdays flying, I had a root beer for lunch which was not a good idea. It's pretty embarrassing for the flight instructor that loses his lunch.
>
> Maneuvers never caused me much trouble. I went on a war bird ride and I think the instructor with me was surprised how I still wanted to do aerobatics after almost an hour of rolls and loops. I guess that is pretty unusual. I did have to stop a student one time from doing spins. After he did about 6 or 7 I started to feel it a little so I said that's all for now.
>
> In C.S. Forrester's Hornblower novels, his main character, Horatio Hornblower, suffers from sea sickness at least for the first several days of a voyage.
I never EVER use to get motion sickness. I could ride the coasters, swing the swings, ride the boats in the ocean, I could do it all, no problem. Then one day...I don't know what happened but I tried to ride the coasters at the Snot Farm and I was all messed up! :-S
on the cyclic stick of an R44 helicopter there is a label that says "Zero G roll overs prohibited" I asked the pilot what happens when you do a zero g roll over?...he says you could break the mast, that's the shaft that connects the rotor to the helo. Then the helicopter takes on all the flying properties of a brick as its rotor spins off into the wild blue yonder.
Daryl,
In Hawaii (Kauai and Maui) me and SWMBO flew in a Hughes 500 and an ASTAR350. Both were really cool and we loved every minute of it. The pilot was Vietnam Vet and really knew how to fly. I suspect he may have "ingested" some Maui-Wowee prior to flight. Nonetheless it was an incredible experience.
Just out of curiosity what is your Helicopter du jour?
Have a great weekend! 🙂
I've had drinks with a couple of those pilots. Apparently, after flying helicopters in Vietnam, under fire, flying tourists around on Kauai, for money, is Just Plain Fun...
Brad,
The “pilot” and I use that term loosely, on the Hughes did things; (with me and SWMBO on board) I never thought a helicopter was capable of. Never realized they could pull G’s. It was an incredible experience! As previously stated I am scared of heights but love to fly in anything that can get airborne.
Have a great week!
Helicopter Du Jour? Hughes 500 D ...unless I have to sit in the back with my head inches from that turbine.
> Back when I was a newly licensed Private Pilot I flew to Mammoth Lakes with a couple of friends in a Piper Cherokee. I rode in the backseat. About a third of the way there (still over the valley) the pilot said, "Dave, take your seatbelt off." Then he proceeded to do a series of steep climbs and descents and wing-overs. I floated all over the backseat in about 5 second bursts. He called it "roller coasters."
I had the same experience in the backseat of a 182, loved every moment of it...
