BRUNSWICK — Casey Brey’s feet floated 6 feet off the ground.

Suspended at zero gravity, a half-second later the Marine Corps staff sergeant came crashing back down to the belly of the airborne Fat Albert, the U.S. Navy Blue Angels’ support plane, a big grin on his face.

The Fat Albert crew members are the techies in the elaborate, airborne play that is a Blue Angels demonstration. They fly equipment and people between air shows, make last-minute dashes to other airfields if a part is needed and stay on the ground while the six F-18 pilots rip through the sky.

While the Fat Albert guys are usually in the background, they take to the sky before every Blue Angels flight to show spectators, and a handful of reporters who ride along with them, what the C-130T Hercules is capable of.

Which is a lot.

On Friday afternoon, after handing out motion sickness bags to the passengers, Capt. Edward Jorge launched the plane into the sky. Over the course of the 10-minute ride, the plane experienced zero and 2G gravitational force, causing passengers to float above and then be pinned into their seats. It also reached its top speed of 370 mph while flying only 60 feet above the runway.

However impressive Fat Albert’s performance may be, few spectators at the Great State of Maine Air Show on Friday had heard of the plane nor had thought very hard about whether Blue Angels had a support crew. Indeed, Fat Albert isn’t even in the air show program.

But that doesn’t bother Gunnery Sgt. Ben Chapman, Fat Albert’s flight engineer.

“People who don’t know who Fat Albert is aren’t real air show fans,” he said.

Besides, in the military, everyone has heard of the big blue and yellow propeller plane, and working on the support staff for the Blue Angels is a big deal, said Oscar Arita, the logistics specialist for the team.

Arita said working for the Blue Angels is competitive and looks good on a military resume. Everyone on the team’s 110-member support staff is handpicked based on their past history in the military and endorsements from supervisors.

You have to be good at your job, he said, and you have to want to be the face of the military for the duration of the three-year tour, something Gunnery Sgt. Chapman was especially excited about.

“I love to talk,” he said, adding that the recruiting and outreach is one of his favorite parts of working for the Blue Angels.

Recruiting is the official mission of the Blue Angels. Arita other staff often visit local schools before the shows begin. Fat Albert takes local military recruiters up in the plane, which Chapman said gives them exciting stories to tell the young people they talk to. Over all, he thinks the military gets a good bang for its buck — the $34 million the Navy spends each year on the Blue Angels.

Before the Navy decommissioned Brunswick Naval Air Station in May 2011, the air show was free to spectators. This year, the Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority, the civilian group tasked with base redevelopment, charged $20 at the gate for an adult ticket on Saturday, and $5 less on Friday. The Sunday show was canceled due to Hurricane Irene.

George Daddona, who drove down from Mechanic Falls, said the admission price was worth it.

“Not everything in life is free,” he said. Besides, his wife Linda bought the tickets back in February as a birthday present.

Mike Morin of Sabattus saw things differently.

“It’s a tough year to shell out money for extracurricular activities,” he said, although he still bought tickets for himself and his two sons to the Friday night show.

Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority officials didn’t have final attendance numbers, but Communications Coordinator Clare Tosto estimated that between 2,000 and 3,000 people attended the Friday night show. She was expecting 50,000 on Saturday, a number she said could be higher if people exchanged their Sunday tickets for Saturday.