[dmayman]

We probably have the highest wing loading of any aircraft, therefore the impact of turbulence is much less than fixed wing or helicopter. The pilot has belly strap and lock holding them to vehicle unless they need to release in an emergency in which case it has pyro cutter.

In rain you’d get wet just like riding a motorcycle on the road. The engines keep running fine.

Flying into birds is not recommended for any aircraft. They wouldn’t go into the engines but could hit the pilot then our safety systems would need to deploy.

Lightning usually won’t take an aircraft of any type out of the sky but may affect instruments.

[taneq]

Thankyou for sticking around and answering so many questions!

My first thought was "why is the pilot hunched over the intakes?" immediately followed by "holy hell that wing/disc loading must play hell on power requirements and fuel consumption, how does that work?".

You mention a scale model elsewhere, is there any video of it available online?