I know this is belated and a little rough, but here is my microgravity reflection...
That was one of the coolest experiences that I have ever had. I would have trouble enumerating the other contenders because of the incredible euphoric feeling after the zero-g flight. It was hard to explain fully what the flight felt like. It was something familiar, kinda like scuba diving or flying in your dreams, but at the same time completely different than anything else I have ever experienced.
For our flight, we started with three martian parabolas, then moved into three lunar parabolas. These were the strangest because I was getting used to the environment for the very first time. Martian gravity is 0.38 g and lunar gravity is 0.17 g. The first two parabolas of each set were reserved for getting my “space legs” on, and the final one I used for some more movements. I was very cautious because I was almost certain that I would become motion sick, since I am so predisposed to that in cars. Motions were so effortless. Before you became familiar with the actual feeling, the reduced gravity felt a lot like no gravity whatsoever. The only way that you could really tell was the way objects (and people) eventually did come back down to the ground. Every movement seemed like it was in slow motion. I did some bouncing in these gravitational levels which was a ton of fun, but it seemed like those environments were gone too quickly. I could get used to that sort of gravity level. Another reason that I was careful at the beginning was because I was afraid that I was going to land on the payload or another person when the gravity returned. I eventually overcame that particular worry and got more comfortable moving around.
After the lunar and martian parabolas, we got to experience our first zero-g parabolas. Again, I was cautious and let the first two go by so that I could adapt and help prevent motion sickness. I quickly realized, however, that I was not going to develop any sort of sickness and so I allowed myself to take more freedoms as time went on. I don't know how much of that was the medicine or my personal reactions to that environment, but I was very glad that it was that way. At first, it was difficult to remain in one place. My legs kept wanting to go towards the ceiling and I frequently hit a camera pole that I was sitting next to. My feet just wanted to get away. The gravity produced by the plane wasn't perfect and there would be periodic occurrences of negative g forces which would pull you towards the roof. These happened especially after the call for feet down, which caught me off guard several times. I would let my feet out of the straps to prepare for my landing position, and then the negative g's right before full gravity came back would try to flip me over towards the roof. The key to control was keeping your legs in check. I discovered that by bringing my knees up towards my chest, I had much better control over my center of mass and my orientation. It makes sense why astronauts frequently “ambulate” with their feet and knees tucked in. Once you had control, moving around was a lot like climbing on monkey bars or lifting yourself up on railings and counter tops (minus your normal body weight, of course). Light movements would produce a great effect.
Not too long into the flight (parabola 15ish) Kyle got motion sick and they took him to the back of the plane. At this point I decided to start asking Sara and Kyle how they were doing on a scale of 10. Kyle eventually returned and was at a 7 or 8 the rest of the flight. After parabolas, though, he threw up when we got back to our seats. He said that he enjoyed it despite being sick. Sara was ok, but on the verge of sickness for the last half of the flight. She rated herself as a 6 or 7. I felt great, so I rated myself a 10 for the whole flight.
During the zero-g portions of the flight, I did some aerobatics, some intentional, some not. For the most part, I stayed calm and enjoyed the microgravity from a hovering position next to our payload. Every now and then I would just take off, however. One instance I flew up completely inverted with my feet touching the ceiling. My hands were attached to the handle on our payload and that acted like a giant hinge. Aside from that, the handles and floor straps were invaluable in maintaining control. I was completely over the payload and I was a little worried that I would fall on it, so I didn't quite pay attention to the sensation of being upside down. Flying completely inverted was one of my goals on this flight to see how my brain would react to a “up is where my head is” paradigm. I ran out of parabolas before I got to that point. I did, however, get to go entirely sideways so that the walls were the floor and roof. It gave a unique perspective and I was quite comfortable doing it. Had there been more time I am sure I would have gotten to go inverted without any difficulty, but we will have to see next time. Whenever I was upside down, I never really got disoriented. I only was worried about where I would land when I came crashing down again.
Time really flew by and the parabolas went very quickly, especially during the outreach portion. We only got to play with a few of our outreach items. Sara held up a sign for Brian, Kyle played with a slinky, and I got to hold up a shirt for Danika, but in general there wasn't enough time to show everything else. I never played with the paratrooper or the dice at all. On the last parabola, I gazed out the window and saw the unnatural sight of the horizon spinning around. The end of the flight really sneaked up on me, and I didn't realize it was over until the clapping at the end of the last parabola came.
I don't know when it will be, but I plan on returning to the microgravity environment.