The second T-5 talk I had ready for SpaceUpEU but I didn't presente it because all of the slots were filled for sunday and I had already done one on saturday.

1. © Stephen Boxall - steveboxall.com
41/2 minutes in free fall,
AKA zero-G
Hi. Maybe you already hate me for seeing Atlantis launch in STS135, but now I’ll tell you about a flight I did in zero g, invited by Vodafone
so you’ll really hate me afterwards.

2. I flew with ZeroG Corp, a US based company which uses a Boeing 727 airliner, suitably modified to withstand the stresses of this kind of
flights.

3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Physicist_Stephen_Hawking_in_Zero_Gravity_NASA.jpg - CC NASA
You have to fill in some paperwork about your health, but if this guy, which I’m pretty sure you all know, did it, you can do it. Oh, and you
also have to say it’s OK if you die.

4. © Stephen Boxall - steveboxall.com
Apart from that, the FAA sees these flights as commercial ones so you get all the amenities like security briefings, a flight attendant that
yells at you with a bullhorn, etc.

5. The main differences are that most of the seats in the plane are gone, that the oxygen masks are under the seats, and that the cabin is
mostly covered with soft mats.

6. File:Parabolic flight.png - GNU GPL by Dr. Wessmann
So, after taking off like any other commercial flight the plane flies to a reserved zone in the airspace where it can perform its tricks
without colliding with anyone which is kind of a good idea.

7. File:Parabolic flight.png - GNU GPL by Dr. Wessmann
This means pointing the nose down, accelerating, and then pulling up and leveling the plane when it slows down. Then you’re in free fall for
25 to 30 seconds. Repeat this x15 times.

8. © Stephen Boxall - steveboxall.com
One of the first things you experience is that mass doesn’t equal weight, so on your first tries to get up you end up scrunched against the
ceiling. It’s a good thing…

9. © Stephen Boxall - steveboxall.com
…the cabin is padded. It also means that you are «stronger», like I found out when someone was falling on top of me. I tried to push him
a bit but instead I sent him flying away.

10. © Stephen Boxall - steveboxall.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=QF2w2Dx_QMs
You also notice quite soon that in zero g (or free fall) things like upside and down cease to have any meaning.You can walk or crawl on
the ceiling with no problem.

11. © Stephen Boxall - steveboxall.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=QF2w2Dx_QMs
There’s a video tour of the ISS by André Kuipers in Youtube where he explains this in node 3, where depending on your activity down can
be any of at least 3 different directions.

12. © Stephen Boxall - steveboxall.com
It is also extremely hard to do many things in free fall, as André says in that video. For example, the coaches on the flight set some water
and M&M’s floating in front of us

13. © Stephen Boxall - steveboxall.com
…and told us to catch them. But it’s nearly impossible unless you can lean on something. On Earth you unconsciously lean forward;
floating in zero g you can’t.

14. © Stephen Boxall - steveboxall.com
You also realize that Sir Isaac Newton was right when he said in his first law of motion that if an object experiences no net force, then its
velocity is constant.

15. © Stephen Boxall - steveboxall.com
When zero g begins, if you don’t push against the floor, you don’t start floating spontaneously. Forget what you’ve seen in the movies, they
mostly got it wrong.

16. The flight, at least to me, was thorougly enjoyable, and I didn’t feel sick at all, even thoug someone did –that’s the circle you see on our
route while they cleared the mess.

17. © Stephen Boxall - steveboxall.com
Unfortunately it is quite expensive at something like 4 tousand dollars plus getting there, lodging and so on, but if I ever win a lottery I’ll
give it another try.

18. © Red Bull Media
Red Bull Media Flight: Quince minutos en un Extra 300L
On the other side of the scale is an aerobatic flight I took in a Red Bull plane.You also have to say that it’s OK if you die, and you get a
security briefing about using a parachute.

19. © Red Bull Media
Red Bull Media Flight: Quince minutos en un Extra 300L
But with loops, barrels, turns of up to 7g, etc, it’s much harder than a zero g flight and it’s not unheard of of passengers asking to cut it
short and/or puking, which fortunately I didn’t.

20. @wicho
You can’t pay to fly with Red Bull, but you can book a ride in a fighter plane with a few companies worldwide… If you have the money.
So… Do you already hate me?