What the Hell Were We Thinking?
We are sitting in the flight hanger. T Minus 60 minutes.
I had an epiphany this morning that has alleviated my anxiety and refreshed my excitement. As we were driving onto the flight base, I realized that flying in 0G will be the closest I will ever come to living my childhood dream... being an astronaut. Not only will this be the closes but probably closer than 99.9999% of the population will ever experience. Ubercool.
Unfortunately, said anxiety HAS returned, as we just finished our crewmember briefing for the vomit comet. It started out pleasant enough, with one of the systems engineers describing the plane, how we have to watch out for sharp corners, etc. Then we had to start signing stuff. And giving Next of Kin information. And being advised of our life insurance converage, as life insurnace won't pay for accidents incurred during so-called "experimental flights".
A little shaken, we are taken down for a tour of the vomit comet. It's quite small. And, smells like vomit (but not apparently as bad as the one in Houston). Apparently, puking in the plane happens all the time. Jim (one of our shop guys and also the spotter in the plane) was describing last night (over Turbo Shandys... was that a good idea?) how incredibly uncormfortable it is to have puke floating around during multiple G phases. info that may be of use: the best thing to do when you puke in 0G is to shake your head. Move it around a bit.
I got to test out the emergency door. it worked. But as we were not given parachutes, I'm not sure how this will be of any relevance.
It was also a little unsettling when the Flight Engineer showed us the back room in the plane (which looks like a set from a movie, with aluminum foil and tubes everywhere), and described it as "relatively" safe. Yes, he did air quotes with his hand. Not somethining you want to see.
OK... the fuel system is up and running. We're going in. Kevin is sending one final lovey email to Carrie. We have gone into the plane for a dry run in our preassigned seats with our preassigned terminals. I just discvoered I will be facing Yaniv when I die.
Wish me luck.
You can also check Kev's blog for his pre-flight thoughts.
I had an epiphany this morning that has alleviated my anxiety and refreshed my excitement. As we were driving onto the flight base, I realized that flying in 0G will be the closest I will ever come to living my childhood dream... being an astronaut. Not only will this be the closes but probably closer than 99.9999% of the population will ever experience. Ubercool.
Unfortunately, said anxiety HAS returned, as we just finished our crewmember briefing for the vomit comet. It started out pleasant enough, with one of the systems engineers describing the plane, how we have to watch out for sharp corners, etc. Then we had to start signing stuff. And giving Next of Kin information. And being advised of our life insurance converage, as life insurnace won't pay for accidents incurred during so-called "experimental flights".
A little shaken, we are taken down for a tour of the vomit comet. It's quite small. And, smells like vomit (but not apparently as bad as the one in Houston). Apparently, puking in the plane happens all the time. Jim (one of our shop guys and also the spotter in the plane) was describing last night (over Turbo Shandys... was that a good idea?) how incredibly uncormfortable it is to have puke floating around during multiple G phases. info that may be of use: the best thing to do when you puke in 0G is to shake your head. Move it around a bit.
I got to test out the emergency door. it worked. But as we were not given parachutes, I'm not sure how this will be of any relevance.
It was also a little unsettling when the Flight Engineer showed us the back room in the plane (which looks like a set from a movie, with aluminum foil and tubes everywhere), and described it as "relatively" safe. Yes, he did air quotes with his hand. Not somethining you want to see.
OK... the fuel system is up and running. We're going in. Kevin is sending one final lovey email to Carrie. We have gone into the plane for a dry run in our preassigned seats with our preassigned terminals. I just discvoered I will be facing Yaniv when I die.
Wish me luck.
You can also check Kev's blog for his pre-flight thoughts.
posted by Anderson at 8:16 AM
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