After nearly two weeks of being grounded from flying because
of rain or high winds, the weather finally cleared, and I took off with my
instructor, Jeff Kling, in his Cessna 150 for an early evening flight.
I guess he wanted to make up for lost time, because it
turned out to be a daredevil trip—one of my most challenging but definitely most
fun lessons so far.
I practiced 360º turns at a 45º bank—my steepest yet. Then
we worked on those dreaded stalls, where we force the plane to its breaking
point and it refuses to fly, then tips over into a dive. Scary stuff!
But the best was yet to come, and it was all about
gravity—or the lack thereof. Here on Earth, the constant tug of gravity we feel
is measured at “1 g”. Sometimes when flying at a steep angle while climbing,
those “g’s” increase to 2 or more, depending on the speed of the aircraft and
the angle of ascent.
A different type of flight maneuver, however, called “parabolic
flight”, creates a weightless environment (“zero g’s”), similar to floating in
outer space, although the feeling of weightlessness is actually caused by “free
falling”. Parabolic flight, used for training astronauts, involves flying up a 45º
incline, then down into a dive, over and over again, as shown in the illustration
above right. During the highest point of the climb, just before you begin the
descent, the pilot and all passengers on board the plane are literally lifted
out of their seats, floating on thin air!
For one of my bucket list activities, I had checked into the
possibility of taking a ride on a Boeing 727 that offers “zero g” flights to
groups of passengers, with 12-15 weightless segments of about 30 seconds each.
Unfortunately, the price tag of $5,000.00 stopped me in my tracks.
I had no idea that Jeff’s plane could perform such maneuvers,
even though it’s for a much shorter period of time, so you can imagine my
surprise when he asked if I would like to try it. He’s been flying this pattern
for years, and keeps a small bean bag in the plane, which he places on the
dashboard during the maneuver to see how high he can make it float. How cool is
that?
All I have to say about my “zero g” flight experience is,
“POSITIVELY AMAZING!!!” It was my most thrilling flying lesson ever. While the
feeling of free-falling makes some people feel queasy, I found it exhilarating
and can’t wait to try it again!
I plan to be a model student in the future and work hard at
practicing my lessons in the hope of being rewarded again with the thrill of
floating on air!
Thank you, Jeff, for super fun day of flying!
Coming soon—S-P-I-N-S!!!
