Nonfiction

Zero-G Flight

During the summer of 1970, I participated in summer training as a freshly minted third-classman at the United States Air Force Academy.  Part of that training was a field trip which took us to various Air Force bases around the country. At Wright-Patterson AFB, I had the experience of a life-time, but at first I had no idea what was awaiting me.

I got word that ten of us had been selected to take a training flight and to dress in fatigues and combat boots. That’s all we knew when the bus picked us up to take us out to the tarmac and pulled up next to a KC-135 tanker aircraft.  We climbed out of the bus and up the ramp to the forward door. When we got inside, we were in for quite a shock.  All of the seats were removed except for the very front of the cabin, and padding had been attached to the entire inside skin of the aircraft.

We were instructed to strap in and then the pilot came back to brief us on our flight plan.  It was at that point that we were told that this was a specially modified KC-135 with wings that were structurally reinforced to sustain the G-forces necessary for weightless flight. This was the same aircraft that had been used to train our astronauts and I was about to experience the exact same weightless environment as an eighteen year old cadet.  The aircraft achieves weightless conditions by going into a shallow dive where the plane is descending at the same rate as the acceleration of gravity.

Once we got up to altitude, we were briefed on what to expect during our flight. The aircraft would be put into a series of identical maneuvers which would expose us to both positive and negative G-forces.  If plotted on a chart, the flight path would appear like a radio wave with alternating peaks and valleys. We would be weightless from a point just after the top of the peak and remain in that condition while descending until reaching the point just before the start of the next valley.  Then we would experience positive G’s as the aircraft was pulled out of its dive, and while ascending back to the point where we could start the pattern over again.

To be safe, we removed our combat boots and laced them securely to the frame of our seats. I could imagine how dangerous it would be to have ten cadets floating around the cabin, and possibly kicking each other in the face by accident.  We all then left our seats and assumed positions at various spots on the floor. Before long, we were at the planned altitude and the pilot brought the aircraft over the top of the first peak and began our descent. The sensation was surprisingly familiar to me. It reminded me of the feeling you get when you go over a bump in a fast-moving car and you “lose your stomach.”  Going weightless for the first time felt just like that, except you don’t get your stomach back – it’s completely lost until you start pulling positive G’s again. As the descent accelerated, we all began to rise magically from the floor of the aircraft.

It was at this point that we all got an instant refresher course in the laws of physics. I looked around and found most of my comrades floating around the center of the cabin trying desperately to move.  The problem is that if you get stuck in the middle, there is no way to propel yourself.  You learn very quickly that all attempts to “swim” through the air are futile because unlike water, air provides virtually no resistance to your arm and leg motions.

It was quite amusing to see everyone trying this for a minute or two and then finally give up.  After that, we discovered that the best plan of attack was to hang on to the floor or wall when we first went weightless.  Then you could push off from there to wherever you wanted to go.  As long as you didn’t get stuck in the middle of the cabin, you were fine.  If you did get stuck, you had to hope that someone else would come along and bump you hard enough to push you to the padded walls.

As the first weightless cycle ended, we all floated to the floor.  I could tell that some of my comrades were starting to feel nauseous and lightheaded. We were now pulling +2 G’s as the aircraft pulled out of its dive and started its ascent again.  This change in G-forces raises havoc with your senses, particularly when you are going back and forth from positive to negative, in a repeating pattern. As a child, I was prone to carsickness and I clearly remember one family trip to Boston where I lost it in my mother’s lap on the front seat of the car.

I could never read while riding in a car or even bend down to lace my ski boots. I’m dating myself here because I started snow skiing long before there were clip boots and Velcro.  Somehow over the years my body slowly adapted to the point where I got over carsickness in my late teens.  I hadn’t experienced those sensations until I found myself suspended in mid-air for the first time in my life. I knew that getting sick was as much psychological as it is physical, so I turned my mental focus to the incredible experience I was having. If I didn’t think about getting sick, I told myself, then I wouldn’t get sick.

Before I knew it, we were rounding the top of our ascent and preparing for the next dive into weightlessness. This time I was well-prepared and I positioned myself at the rear of the cabin and hung onto the back wall padding. Growing up in the 1950s, my brothers and I were devoted fans of “The Adventures of Superman” television series starring George Reeves as the DC Comic superhero.  I even had a Superman Halloween costume which I proudly wore during an era when you could send your children throughout the neighborhood to collect treats without worrying about them getting abducted or worse.

I had often fantasized about what it would be like to fly and now I had my chance. Once we were fully in our descent mode, I pushed off the upper portion of the back wall of the cabin with my legs, as hard as I could.  There was no one in my path and I sailed the entire length of the cabin, using my arms to stop my flight at the other end of the plane.  The sensation was so exhilarating that I couldn’t believe this was actually happening to me.

I was already planning my next trick which would be to repeat that flight, except I would do somersaults the entire length of the cabin. Since I wouldn’t be able to see where I was going, I had to tell my buddies what I was up to in order to assure that I had a clear path from one end to the other. They all readily agreed under the condition that we all got to try it at least once.  Over the next few weightless cycles, we all got our shot at being Superman for a few seconds.

There is no amusement ride on this planet that even comes close to the pure fun that we enjoyed. Well, at least some of us were having fun. We had all been given barf bags before take-off and by now a few of our group were already using them. The only problem was that none of them had ever attempted to fill a bag while in a totally weightless environment. Not all of it found its way into the bags and was floating around the cabin like everything else that wasn’t tied down.  I felt lucky that I hadn’t lost my lunch yet but I don’t think anything could have detracted from the sheer fun I was having.

On the next weightless cycle, the aircrew had a surprise in store for us.  They gave us all a plastic cup of water and asked us to try and drink it when we were weightless. It was a novel and intriguing idea, but I wondered just how long the water would stay in the cups once gravity was no longer holding it in.  It didn’t take long for me to find out since I never really got a chance to try and drink it. As soon as I was airborne again, the water was out of my cup and floating as one giant globule right in front of me.  Seeing water suspended in mid-air like that confirmed the adhesion properties I had learned about in school. Then I took my hand and slapped the globule as hard as I could. It disintegrated into hundreds of tiny droplets that went flying to the other side of the cabin where they splattered all over the padding.

We cycled through weightlessness several more times, and had the opportunity to do every acrobatic maneuver our imaginations could come up with.  We were like kids in a candy store and I was hooked.  At the conclusion of the flight, we were presented an official certificate to document our accomplishment which I still treasure to this day.

Freelance Writing by Michael Sanibel ^SM —  Freelance Writer