[ip26]

It's hard to impress upon folks who have never been in a small plane like that just how ... yeah ... how much it feels like you're hanging onto a kite

Went up in a four man single engine chopper once. It had all the reassuring solidity of a bicycle. Never again. I can’t even imagine what the truly tiny ones are like.

[mdip]

I did one of those chopper tours over a big city one time in a splurge. Yeah, I hear ya.

I was surprised at how similar the feel is. Your bicycle analogy made me laugh -- spot on. I used to love taking my macho friends up in my dad's plane. There's this moment after take-off where my Dad will comment on "how smooth the air is" ... it's either "perspective" or a pilot joke, I'm not sure, because said "smooth air" is about as bad as reasonable air-turbulence on a jet and the flight is usually marked occasionally by the kind of turbulence that would have the overhead bins tossing luggage onto passengers. I recall a humorous incident where my buddy Tim dropped an F-bomb over a hot mic on the headset when we got smacked sideways.

[lbriner]

I had a lesson in an Ikarus C42, which although it looks like a "normal" light aircraft is made of kevlar over aluminium and is officially a microlight. It is a 2-seater but the weight is so low that if you are travelling with a passenger, there is a weight limit. I think I worked out that my 6'3" boss was too heavy to fly with an instructor.

It was actually pretty fun but, of course, the weather is everything. I can't imagine how bad it would be in any wind more than about 5 knots but on the day I had my lesson, it was calm and clear.