If you had the money, would you go on a Zero G flight?

Yes, I have an adrenaline junkie dormant inside me.

Yes I would.

You know that feeling you get when balancing on the back legs of a tilted chair, and suddenly you think it’s going to tip over…? I feel like that all the time.

Oh, yeah!

I would do anything that gives me a taste of what it’s like to be an astronaut. I heard about Stephen Hawking getting to do this. How cool for him!

I wouldn’t do it, because I am pretty sure it would make me nauseas, and I am kind of phobic about throwing up. I hate that no G feeling on rides, forget about actually doing it for more than a few seconds. However I am not prone to motion sickness except in extreme circumstances. If someone I knew convinced me I was unlikely to get sick I might try it. But, I think even Tom Hanks spoke of getting sick in the zero G flights at first, or maybe it was one of the other actors in the movie Apollo 13? Otherwise, I think it sounds very cool, and I think if you are interested you should do it. Definitely bucket list material.

Yes, but only in the nude along with huge gobs of peanut butter, jelly and huge marshmallows floating all around!

Yes!!!

That would be cool, but I think I’ll save up for this instead.

Oh @YoBob that is divine! I might even be able to get a date with that ride.

Absolutely I would do it, if there was a guarantee that I wouldn’t throw up. I hate it enough that I would pass up such a cool opportunity.

Yes yes yes!!

@YoBob Wow! That’s even cooler!

And I would also only go on the Zero G flight if there was a guarantee that you people wouldn’t throw up. Other people throwing up around me is unpleasant enough when gravity keeps the stuff in one place, I really don’t like the idea of weightless vomit. It’s extremely unappealing to me.

¡¡sǝʎ ‘sǝʎ ‘sǝʎ
¡¡¡ǝǝǝǝǝɥʍ

¿¿¿ʇıɯoʌ ssǝlʇɥƃıǝʍ ʎɐs ǝuoǝɯos pıp˙˙˙ʇıɐʍ

That’s disgusting!! I’m outta here!....wait….I’m, like, really high in a airplane. Guess I’ll ʞɔıʇs punoɹɐ ɹoɟ ɐ ǝlıɥʍ¡! Wheeee!!!

No way. That sounds terrifying!

oh hell yes. I have no fear of flying and I think that would be an awesome experience.

I rode with these guys a few years ago.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfGYiPOfzgY

@bkcunningham Really? That must have been about as fun and exiting as life gets. We’re you scared? Did your stomach ever end up in your throat? :-) Mine would have.

The most adventurous thing I ever did was parachuting. I was in college and made 4 jumps. I did my first one, and then went back and did the other 3 another day. The first jump you just jump and you’re hooked to the line and it pulls your shoot for you. Then your next jumps, you are still hooked to the line that pulls your shoot, but you had a dummy rip cord that you pulled, so you start to learn to pull the rip cord at the right time. If you dropped the thing, you had to buy a case of beer for the people at the jump school.

I don’t know how they do it now; that was the old days. When people go to a jump school, do they start people out with tandem jumping or not, do you know? It was a lot fun until I thought about getting to the point where I would be responsible for pulling my own real rip cord on a parachute that wouldn’t open automatically at the right time because it was hooked up to the plane, and it hit me: HS! I’m jumping out of airplanes! I could die! After that I was too scared to do it.

I wasn’t scared at first. But my pilot was late. (It was a student training glider with two seats. I was in front.) I started to get nervous as I waited and had time to watch other planes. It was the day before an airshow and everyone was practicing, playing and coming into the fly-in.

I was warned, I shouldn’t say this but I will, by the pilot, that I would probably need to find a bathroom as soon as we landed because I would develop loose bowels. He wasn’t lying. About five minutes after we landed, I knew what he meant. I have a plate from a newspaper where the story ran. There is a photo of my friend and me after the flight. It was a black and white shot, but I still look green.

I envy you for parachuting. I could never, ever do that. I’d be afraid of the first step. I wish I wasn’t a chicken about jumping off things. How cool is it that you can say you did jump. Not once, but four flipping times. Whoo Hooo. That is awesome. Good memories.

I came close to hang gliding with my dad at Kittyhawk, NC, but we didn’t. We’ve both said it was one of our only regrets in life.

I think you can have a choice at some jump schools whether you go tandem or solo. The parachute is equipped with a devise that detects speed and altitude and automatically deploys a chute if you don’t open it in time.

@bkcunningham I guess that really was the old days, when I jumped. I always forget that I grew up in the Paleolithic Era. The first jumps were strictly static line jumps. I should have known sky diving would be an area where advancements in technology had been applied.

And yes, that first step is a doozy! I remember the “first step” it as if it was yesterday. I don’t exactly remember the order we jumped out in, we had to go out pretty fast because the plane has to be in the right place, so the wind conditions are right and so you don’t end up landing in a tree or in the power lines. It was a little Cessna. With a bar sticking out of the plane, on the side, below the door and you had to step out and stand on the bar (that was pretty scary!) and when the instructor slapped your thigh you were supposed to jump!!

I think the first time I did it because I would have rather faced the fear than the embarrassment of chickening out. Those guys at that jump school were kind of tough, even a bit mean, and if I hadn’t jumped when the guy slapped my leg, I knew that it would mess things up for everyone else, if I just stood there and couldn’t go. The plane would have to circle around until it found the right conditions again, and I would take a verbal pummeling for that and and a major razzing for chickening out in general, when I got back on the ground. I would have rather died than walk through that sword arch of guilt and shame, so I jumped. :-)

And thanks for the heads up about the flights. I’ll now know to bring some Depends with me if I ever get chance to go up in one of those things.

And it’s a shame about the gliding. That’s something I’ve always wanted to do too. It must so incredibly peaceful to fly without the roar of an engine.

The sword arch of guilt and shame. I am going to lift that one from you @lillycoyote. That is a good one.

@bkcunningham Your welcome to it, if you like. That’s how I imagined it. All those sharp tongues, waiting on the ground, ready to be unsheathed from their scabbards were I to chicken out. I had to jump. I had no choice. :-)

I’m glad we are friends now, @lillycoyote. You are smart, funny and have four jumps under your belt.

I’m dead scared of airplanes. Been in one once in my life, and I don’t ever want to go in one AGAIN.

Then again, it would probably be stupid to pass up this sort of opportunity, if I was able to easily spare five grand. The one plane I went in, nothing at all went wrong. I just didn’t like it at all. But that was years ago. I like to think I’d have the guts to try something awesome lol.

@bkcunningham Me too, my friend. You’re pretty awesome yourself. : – ) And you’ve flown in a plane that does spins, and rolls and flies upside down and does all sorts of stomach turning tricks. That takes guts! I know it sounds kind of irrational and it’s hard to explain, but I’m not so much afraid of crashing going up in a plane that does all that as I am of having a stroke brought on by my fear of crashing. I don’t think I could handle the spins and the rolls. And I looked into the Swift Aerobatic Display Team a little bit and they sound like they are very, very good at what they do; they sound like they do some pretty amazing things, with their three pilots and their three planes. Big crowd pleasers, apparently.

@Symbeline I can’t front you the 5 grand but you can have one of my valiums if you need it for the flight. :-) Just kidding, that would be illegal.