19/04/11…..’Superman’ Don takes off from Cape Canaveral

THAME’s Deputy Mayor, Donald Butler, has been off adventuring again, this time with daughter, Abby as the two learned what it felt like to walk on the moon and fly like Superman.

Don, as he is affectionately known, has been a lifelong smoker and his daughter bet him that if he quit for six months she would reward him with a trip to Cape Canaveral, Florida to experience parabolic flight, a very unique flying experience previously only available to astronauts.

Don and Abby were to board a plane that would drop 8,000 feet in 30 seconds, creating zero gravity inside the aircraft – the right environment to experience weightlessness.

With the help and support of his family and the Thame Smoking Cessation Club, Don quit smoking and Abby lived up to her promise.

Now, Don has been on one or two adventures before this, including driving an Airship and a six week sailing trip across the Pacific with his brother-in-law. They sailed from Florida to Bermuda and beyond, weathering some horrific storms. During the trip Don suffered a very painful crushed elbow in heavy seas but ten years later, raves about the experience still.

Parabolic flight however was to be a new frontier for him and Abby.

They were in a team of 30 people that boarded a Boeieng 727 to be flown 32,000 feet into the air. The group was divided into teams of ten, distinquished by different coloured socks and were designated different sections on the plane.

Now, how parabolic flight works is that the plane flies between 24 and 32,000 feet in a trajectory that resembles a series of gently rolling hills. Once Don and Abby’s plane reached altitude, they and their fellow adventurers left their seats and entered the floating area. As the plane began to descend they were to be lifted off the ground effortlessly. Well, that’s the theory anyway according to the parabolic flight company, Zero G.

Don recalls looking at the ceiling of the plane as the engines went quiet, perhaps recalling what the pilot had said to him about enjoying his job so much, because he got to ?fly a Boeieng 727 like a fighter jet.”

During his 30 seconds of weightlessness, Don began by showing off by doing a few fingertip press-ups and managed not to crush anything this time round, as the plane is padded with foam to prevent injury.

The Boeieng does 15 parabolas allowing for 25-30 seconds of weightlessness each time, which occurs at the top of each arc. Don and Abby experienced what the moon’s gravity felt like for Neil Armstrong (your body feels like 6th of your wight) and what Martian gravity (3rd of your weight) would feel like.

At one point the instructor told the them to assume the Superman position, knees bent arms stretched outfront, and push off. Well, Don was soon flying through the air like bird, a very ambitious bird, that ended up at other end of the plane, surrounded by unfamiliar coloured socks. Abby went to retrieve her Superman father who had by this point lost all perception of up or down.

Three weeks later, Don, retired upholsterer, collector of Classic cars, our Deputy Mayor and Thame’s own Indiana Jones, has another adventure to add to his list. But in his own words: ?Where can he go from here??

Written by: Simone Visser

PHOTO: Courtesy of Force G (Don’s the hairy one, front left, while Abby’s the one clinging onto the ceiling!)