Our plane, the Falcon 20:
Day one of flying was absolutely terrible - I was so sick on each of my two flights, and I had absolutely no idea why ANYONE would want to do this sort of thing:
This is our plane, doing its thing:
Basically, we do that rollercoaster part between 3 and 5 times in a row, loop back, and do another 3-5. And by rollercoaster, I mean a rollercoaster that rises and falls 10000 feet. This is only fun when its perfectly smooth, which on Monday, it wasn't. We finished flying Monday in the early afternoon. I felt sick until about 10pm, managing to consume about 12 grapes, a pickle, and a ginger ale over the course of the day. I dreaded going to sleep, because I knew I'd be waking up to another day of flying.
On Tuesday, Rebecca had the BEST idea ever: Gravol. I took half of one about an hour before the flight, and OH MY GOD it was so much fun. I got to sit in the jump seat between the pilots for take-off, listening to the going over the pre-flight checklist and chatting away calmly.
Jump-seat Mona-Lisa:
We did ten parabolas (two sets of five in a row) and I loved every minute. It was such a rush to look out the window and see sky... then ground... then ground rushing up to meet you... and then the rise up to sky again. So cool.
We celebrated the good day with some Keg, some sauna & mojitos, and some pie. I was afraid that maybe we celebrated too much, and prematurely, but today was also wonderful. During my flight today, I decided to take a parabola off from data collection and just enjoy it. So, I watched the earth shift in ways that its not supposed to shift when you're looking out of a plane window. In the mini-G phase (1/6th Earth gravity - about what you'd feel on the moon), I tossed my (empty! yay!) sick-bag up in the air and watched it hover. I floated off my seat a bit. During the 2G (twice Earth's gravity) phase, Jeff took an amazing video of dropping a piece of foam - it fell like a stone! Its funny - nobody will ever lose or gain weight as quickly or as effectively as they do during these flights. Over the course of a minute, I fluctuated between weighing about 20 pounds up to 260 pounds!! At 260 pounds, I did NOT feel like moving.
Aside from the flying, we did a lot of other fun things. We spent a lot of time out eating (from fantastic thai to one of Ottawa's three kosher 'restaurants' - actually a cafeteria in a fitness club) and drinking. Phil, Mike and I spent a ton of time in the hot tub and sauna. After the flights yesterday, we went and explored a decrepit plane on NRC grounds - apparently they're using it for materials research and examining how its body and wiring deteriorate.
NOT our plane:
Trying not to fall:
And after we wrapped up today, we headed into downtown Ottawa to see the parliament buildings. We brought the frisbee along, so we spent about 45 minutes tossing it around and I got to feel spring grass under my bare feet.
The whole trip was wonderful, and I would so do every bit of it over again (but, always with gravol for the flying bits).
5 comments:
so cool Jen - so very cool!
Um, this is probably one of the coolest things I've ever heard. !!!
Frisbee on the lawn, that is SO COOL!! Hahaha, ok, I'm kidding. That is cool, but the whole anti-gravity experience is more what I'm talking about.
But what the hell is Gravol??
Gravol is an anti-nauseant - not sure what its called in the states and I THINK it may even be a prescription med down in your parts (here, we just grab it off the shelves).
And thanks!!! It was super-cool, and also cool to do it the same week (different country) as Stephen Hawking!!!
Dude! That is so awesome!
I'd be pretty tempted to spit in zero-g just to see what it looks like.
it would look like floating spit ;) It's weird how that becomes a consideration though - on my first flight I had to make sure that the bag was properly sealed so that my... er, i don't want to really say it because it's kinda gross... wouldn't fly up in my face during the zero-g phase!!
Post a Comment