The Marine Corps allowed students with no flight training or experience to take control of an airplane Wednesday at the Ohio State University Airport.

“I was piloting and another student was puking in his barf bag when I pushed a nose dive that gave us zero gravity for a few seconds, like in space,” said Brendan Boley, one of the students with no training.

“His bag rose into the air, but he grabbed it just before the vomit could spread. It was kind of like a roller coaster gone wild because none of us knew how to fly.”

There is no better way to learn than by doing, and for more than a decade, the Marine Corps Flight Orientation Program has provided students across the country this first, big baby-step toward a career in aviation.

“It’s like putting a young kid in a car and telling him to go drive on the highway,” said Boley, a second-year in business economics.

The Marines ensure the safety of the program’s participants by seating a marine pilot next to each piloting novice for supervision.

Boley’s vomit-flight was atypically turbulent, and the two remaining
orientation flights were canceled because of inclement weather.

“We don’t take civilians up when the ceiling is below 3,000 feet,” said Captain Adrian Pirvu, who is responsible for officer recruiting in central Ohio and West Virginia.

Seven students went up in a King Air 90 at noon Wednesday.

“That is an incredibly capable, twin-engine-turbo-prop aircraft that can do anything a jet can,” said Jim Oppermann, aviation lecturer and faculty adviser to OSU’s Alpha Eta Rho aviation fraternity. “It’s not sexy, but it’s a working horse.”

After the noon flight took off, weather conditions became suddenly more overcast and windy.

“Smaller planes are more sensitive to wind and visibility conditions,” Oppermann said. “A low ceiling meant that clouds were too low for what the pilot wanted to do on behalf of students interested in marine corps aviation.”

Even those interested in aviation are not always keen to go up in inclement weather.

“Those winds are not something I would want to fly in,” said Brent Ferguson, former president of OSU’s Alpha Eta Rho chapter.

Ferguson graduated from OSU in 2008 with an aviation degree, but not before participating in a similar Marine Corps flight orientation. “I had flown a single-engine aircraft before, but going up with the marines gave me an opportunity that most pilots don’t get until later in their careers. The twin turbo-prop aircraft has a lot of size and power.”

Five of the seven students in Wednesday’s noon flight experienced the King Air 90’s power firsthand — they got sick.

“One guy was a skydiving instructor with more than 150 dives to his credit, and he filled up two vomit-bags,” Boley said. “Once one person pukes, the smell fills the cabin, and it’s a chain reaction. I was alright until I stopped piloting and moved to the back where the turbulence is worst. Then I let a little go, too.”

When a plane climbs sharply, passengers experience positive gravitational forces that push blood away from the head, which can result in a blackout.

“Coming down gives you negative Gs and sometimes a redout,” Boley said. “But as soon as Major Morning got back in control, everything was fine.”

Pilots such as Morning earn their wings via three phases of Marine Corps training. Primary flight training sends marines to specialize in a certain aircraft before advanced training hones their craft. But even before pre-flight training, many marine corps aviation careers begin with the free flight time of orientation events similar to the one at OSU.