Flight Week—Wednesday
Today was the second flight day for our experiment. Mr. Delventhal and Ms. Frick put on their flight suits and prepared for the flight by going to the pre-flight medical briefing and getting their anti-nausea medication. Then we had a briefing with the flight director and met the pilot of the “Weightless Wonder”. I did a little brain gym to relieve stress while waiting for the flight to take off. We also had some photo ops with our mascots Space Bear and Space Monkey before loading them into their backpack for take-off on the C-9. When it came time to get on the plane, all the fliers lined up and had a little trouble staying in a straight line (just like elementary students). We got our photos taken as we boarded the plane. The playground hoop was stashed in the back of the plane and the backpack with the bears, cameras, recording sheets, stop watch, and pen went into the cargo area. As soon as we got the go ahead, we were out of our seats and setting up equipment in our area. Mr. Delventhal and I decided to change the order of the experiments so he did three in a row and I did three in a row. This meant less time wasted during a parabola to go from one side of the plane to the other. We managed to finish the experiments by parabola 30 and had some time to try out weightlessness in other ways. I tried the playground hoop and then had Space Bear try it too. Mr. Delventhal tried a front roll on the last parabola and had to sit down for the lunar and mars parabolas. Experiencing 2-g’s was almost as interesting experience as zero-g. It felt really strange to have your face and body and even ankles feel like they were dragging to the bottom of the plane. All too soon the flight was over. Would I do it again???? YES!
Back on land, we had a debriefing with the flight director. It appeared that everyone was happy with the way their experiments went and many had ideas for next year. It’s not too soon to start thinking about an experiment to do on the Reduced Gravity Jet. Then we had to take our stuff off the plane so the next group could load their experiments.
Today was the second flight day for our experiment. Mr. Delventhal and Ms. Frick put on their flight suits and prepared for the flight by going to the pre-flight medical briefing and getting their anti-nausea medication. Then we had a briefing with the flight director and met the pilot of the “Weightless Wonder”. I did a little brain gym to relieve stress while waiting for the flight to take off. We also had some photo ops with our mascots Space Bear and Space Monkey before loading them into their backpack for take-off on the C-9. When it came time to get on the plane, all the fliers lined up and had a little trouble staying in a straight line (just like elementary students). We got our photos taken as we boarded the plane. The playground hoop was stashed in the back of the plane and the backpack with the bears, cameras, recording sheets, stop watch, and pen went into the cargo area. As soon as we got the go ahead, we were out of our seats and setting up equipment in our area. Mr. Delventhal and I decided to change the order of the experiments so he did three in a row and I did three in a row. This meant less time wasted during a parabola to go from one side of the plane to the other. We managed to finish the experiments by parabola 30 and had some time to try out weightlessness in other ways. I tried the playground hoop and then had Space Bear try it too. Mr. Delventhal tried a front roll on the last parabola and had to sit down for the lunar and mars parabolas. Experiencing 2-g’s was almost as interesting experience as zero-g. It felt really strange to have your face and body and even ankles feel like they were dragging to the bottom of the plane. All too soon the flight was over. Would I do it again???? YES!
Back on land, we had a debriefing with the flight director. It appeared that everyone was happy with the way their experiments went and many had ideas for next year. It’s not too soon to start thinking about an experiment to do on the Reduced Gravity Jet. Then we had to take our stuff off the plane so the next group could load their experiments.
1 comment:
Mrs. Barnette's 5th grade class is living the experience with you. A direct quote from a student, "Why can't Mrs. Frick read to us during Library time from the Micro G-Force Unit?". There's an interesting concept! The students are very excited about sharing this experience with their NASA video-pals in Greece. You are touching many children with this project. Enjoy and can't wait to hear all about it.....Mrs. B's class
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