Hillcrest High School physics teacher Steve Chrystall plays with a rugby ball in zero gravity conditions aboard his once-in-a-lifetime flight as part of the Northrop Grumman Weightless Flights of Discovery programme.
A Hamilton physics teacher is finally coming back down to Earth after experiencing one of the most hair-raising 727 flights ever allowed.
The flight, over the US, was controlled by specially trained pilots and followed a giant roller coaster-like flight path in which zero gravity was experienced. The
plane carried out its parabolic manoeuvres at altitudes between 7320m and 10,360m.
So enthralled was Steve Chrystall with the "Northrop Grumman Weightless Flights of Discovery programme" that he is now urging New Zealand students to apply to go to the United States space camp - the programme's base - this winter.
Mr Chrystall said two students could be selected for sponsorship of the camp through the Royal Society of New Zealand, a national academy of science.
However, anyone with enough savings could book in directly themselves.
Mr Chrystall said plenty of "out of this world" experiences were available at the space camp, but his favourite was the flight.
Sponsorship of his place on the plane had been a one-off and those who wanted to make it happen would need to stump up with $5250, he said.
Until recently, the flights have predominantly been available only to astronauts.
"It was a physics lesson and experience of a lifetime," the Hillcrest High School teacher said. "[It] was in a hollowed out 727 which flew in giant parabolas to create the sensation of weightlessness."
He compared the feeling to "when the Dukes of Hazard jump over a river in their car", or to that of a child suspended over a trampoline in between bounces.
"The difference being that these episodes of weightlessness lasted for 25 seconds each," Mr Chrystall said.
On the flight he was able to play ping-pong in an environment of zero gravity, do a push-up with four claps behind his back as if in lunar gravity, play volleyball using another teacher as the ball in Martian gravity and play with water floating in midair.
"I will certainly be recommending and possibly organising field trips from New Zealand for others to take part in this," he said.
