Upgrade? What upgrade?

I almost never willingly book a flight without upgrade potential. But a few weeks ago I did just that, and – get this – can’t wait to do it again. Srsly. Of course, this isn’t your usual aircraft — it’s a modified 727-200F (F for freighter; Boeing built 15 of them for FedEx) complete with winglets, beefed up hydraulics, accelerometers in the cockpit, and lots of padding lining the cabin interior.

Two of the only four (exit) windows aside from the cockpit…

Walking to the plane for a group photo sesh. Dig the winglets which were not originally on the 727.

Operated by the Zero Gravity Corporation, this jet takes up to 36 passengers to do what you might expect after seeing the name of the company and their plane: experience a zero gravity environment (and martian and lunar gravity, too). How do they do this? By flying a parabolic flight path, which goes from 24,000 feet to 32,000 feet at 45 degrees of attack and 1.8G before going over the top and sending everyone inside into zero gravity for about 30 seconds on each parabola. With 12-15 parabolas on each flight, that’s about 7 minutes of microgravity, which is a bit more than people will be getting on their $200k Virgin Galactic flights (when that finally happens). In fact, I believe that this is part of the training for Virgin Galactic.

A word on motion sickness: On their site they say very few people get sick on these flights, but on NASA’s “vomit comet”, which runs 40-60 parabolas, fully 2/3 will experience motion sickness. Our coach said at least one person has been sick on all of her flights, and on my flight I counted about 8 people who opted to return to their seat with barf bag in tow or were very clearly not feeling well by the end. I’d consider myself to have normal susceptibility to motion sickness, and I was ok. BUT, here is what I’d recommend based on my experience:

1. Don’t party or drink the night before. If you’re hungover on one of these things you’ll be reaching for your barf bag before the second parabola.
2. Do be well-hydrated and eat a reasonable breakfast before you fly (they provide good snacks at check-in).
3. Don’t try to move your head around too much or sit up while pulling up in 1.8G if you’re feeling woozy at all.
4. Do pick a spot on the ceiling and stare at it while not in microgravity or level flight.
5. Do take a Dramamine or two if you’re concerned at all. The drowsiness won’t be a factor with all that adrenaline, and why risk paying all that money to sit in economy and puke your guts out in zero gravity?

They hand everyone barf bags after takeoff, and you’re told to keep them in an easily accessible pocket, of which there are many on the jumpsuits they give you to wear on the flight.

Boarding the 727-200F.

Once you’re on board you see all of the seats in the rear of the aircraft. I was seated in 6A, and I recommend row 6 (you’re able to choose) because it’s the exit row and you can peek out the porthole in the door — the only windows in the seating area.

View from the back of the cabin, complete with German TV film crew.

Pretty standard Y seats.

Now on to the fun

On this flight you’ll do 12-15 parabolas (we did 15), with the first one being lunar gravity (roughly 2/3), the second martian gravity (roughly 1/3), and then on to the full zero gravity sets. They’re done in sets of 4, with a short break between each set to sit up and get your bearings while the aircraft repositions for another set. The cabin is divided into three areas, for the three different gorups of people, Gold, Silver, and Blue. Gold is up front, Silver in back just in front of the seats, and Blue in the middle. There’s some fudge room for those boundaries, but you’re told not to stray into the other areas, or obviously above the seats.

1. Lunar gravity: great intro to decreased gravity. The first time you pull over the peak of the parabola will be very disorienting, but once you’re in the descent part of it, it feels strangely normal, aside from being able to do push-ups that send you 4 feet off the ground.
2. Martian gravity: I had a LOT of fun with this one, literally doing pushups that were sending me to the ceiling, or pushups where you do a complete roll in the air before landing back down again. Awesome.
3. Zero gravity: amazing. The first rule of Zero G Club is you do not swing your arms. Or maybe it should be don’t puke. Either way, you spend the first few zero G sessions getting used to it, then you’re on to the flips, spins, floats, tossing candy in the air, and drinking droplets of water suspended in the air. Very cool. Being upside down feels completely normal, except for the visual cues in the cabin.

Getting all tangled in zero gravity.

When all is said and done, you’ll have little bits of candy stuck to you, you’ll be a bit damp from the water bottle session, 1/3 of your group will be sitting in the seats feeling miserable, and you’ll be wondering when you can get back on another zero G flight. On the way down you get some water and snacks which is nice, though not everyone will be wanting to eat!

Snacks! Sorry for the backfocused image here…

Seatlink’s Take

Amazing experience, and I hope to some day be able to do it again. Go Zero G runs their flights all over the US, and there’s a company in Europe called Air Zero G running similar flights in an A310. I was given this flight as a gift from a friend, and I have to say they are quite pricey, but if I were paying I would take this flight over a RT to Asia in business class on Cathay any day!

The verdict

Reviewed by

Seatlink

Date

2015-10-28

Airline/cabin

Go Zero G Zero Gravity Flight

Rating

5