Twenty-five students and faculty members got a unique look at the ISU campus Tuesday — from the cockpit of an airplane.

Five students at a time were allowed on board the twin-engine Piper Chieften to see the sights of Ames from about 3,400 feet in the air.

“We want to see the world,” said Cheri Black, senior in microbiology and Spanish.

The free flights were courtesy of the Marine Corps. The Corps uses the flights as a recruiting effort, but Capt. Michael Gathercole, Marine Corps selection officer from Des Moines, said recruiters know from the start that 90 percent of the people who go up in the plane would not even qualify to join the Marines.

“The main reason we do it is to introduce aviation and also to introduce them to something they don’t know,” Gathercole said.

The recruitment team travels to several college campuses year-round, offering students the opportunity to take to the skies.

Capt. Brad Crabtree pilots the airplane and gives students a brief lesson in flying.

Crabtree said he has been flying for nine years and takes about 150 students up a week during campus-recruitment periods. Crabtree said he pilots an average of 30 flights a week.

“I enjoy the view,” he said. “I enjoy traveling and going places.”

Crabtree said most people have a positive experience, although queasiness is not uncommon.

“Some kids will get off there with great big eyeballs, saying, ‘That was the greatest thing,’ and some of them get off kind of pale-looking,” Gathercole said.

Gathercole said Crabtree is known for making the experience memorable.

“He does a few stunts. He can make people sick,” Gathercole said. “He’ll make your stomach go up and down like a roller coaster.”

Tom Clayburg, junior in mechanical engineering, said the flight was different from anything he had ever experienced.

“I’ve been flying before, but nothing like that,” he said.

Matt Borden, sophomore in mechanical engineering, said the plane was much smaller than any of the commercial flights he had ever been on, and he could notice the difference.

“It was the most fun of all,” he said. “It was disorienting because you couldn’t tell which direction you were flying.”