Guest post by Jamie McMackin who is a flying adventure enthusiast. He writes about stunt planes, non-power gliding and jet-pack rides. Read on for the thrill.
Stunt Planes
If you’ve got a strong stomach, stunt flying is just about the most fun thing that you can do in the air. Even for those of us with our pilot’s licenses, most of us don’t own airplanes that you can safely perform stunts in, but rather, we fly in planes more suited to long term travel. This leaves us with two options: renting a stunt plane for the day, or taking a day experience with a professional stunt flying pilot. Either way, you’re in for a wild ride. Barrel rolls and loop-de-loops are just as fun in real life as they appear to be in the movies. If you intend to fly yourself, you may wind up undergoing some stunt training before you’re allowed to take the stick (they certainly don’t want a first time stunt pilot “just wingin’ it”), and of course, you’ll have a co-pilot there with you just in case anything goes wrong, but once you get the hang of it, you’ll be given relative freedom to play around and have some fun.
If you’re a serious flight enthusiast, an amateur pilot or you just want to experience something unique for your next birthday, these three adventures in the sky are something to experience some time in your life:
Non-Powered Gliding
Non-powered gliding is as close as you’re going to get to bird-like flight. Simply floating through the air without the roar of the engine, gliding over the clouds and back down to Earth is an incredible, naturalistic feeling and it really does put you close to how a bird must feel as it soars through the sky. Whether you’re a licensed pilot or looking for an easy, breezy way to take your first flight as a beginner, non-powered gliding is one of the safest and most enjoyable ways to spend an afternoon. Gliders are generally launched by powered aircraft and then set loose to soar, sort of like a paper airplane. Non-powered gliders are one of the most popular aircraft for day experience trips, so flights via glider make a great birthday present for your friends or to yourself. If you’re a first timer, you’ll probably be gliding with a licensed pilot who will take care of landing for you and grab the stick if there are any problems.
Jet Pack Rides
It used to be that you couldn’t strap into a jetpack without thousands and thousands of dollars and training from NASA, and when you did, there was a 50/50 shot you would explode, and a 99% chance that you would crash head first into a building. Jet packs have finally been brought down to the “somewhat accessible” range thanks to setups like JetLev, which allow you to jetpack across lakes or the ocean by sucking water up from the body of water below you and shooting it out the back. You can enjoy this experience with minimal training and little safety risk as, if you fall, you land on the water just sixteen or so feet below, like jumping off of a diving board. It may not be the jetpack ride through canyons and clouds that you daydreamed of as a child, but it’s as close as you’re going to get without a million dollars and four years of specialized training. You can sign up for JetLev rides through some adventure experience services, and it’s something that you can enjoy on certain cruises, too. You won’t need any kind of licensing for this kind of flight, though you may need to pass certain physical qualifications depending on where you go to jetpack.
Breaking the law of gravity is just about the most fun that you can have in a single afternoon, whether you’re stunt flying, gliding or cruising around in a hydro jet pack. Defying the laws of physics and soaring over lakes and clouds is an experience like none other, and there’s simply no substitute for the joy and freedom of flight.
Whether you’re a licensed pilot, a budding trainee, a complete amateur or looking for something fun for a friend to do on their birthday, the thrill of flight is more accessible than ever before. Lessons are only becoming more affordable, and inexpensive day adventure trips mean that you don’t even need to invest in a pilot’s license or an aircraft of your own in order to know what it’s like to sit behind the stick of a flying machine. In other words, flight is not just a hobby of the rich anymore, it’s something that anybody with a birthday coming up can enjoy.
If you’ve never flown except for on a commercial airliner, then you definitely do not want to spend your life wondering what it’s like. Even sitting in the passenger seat of a small aircraft is a joy unlike flying in an airbus. Even taking a helitour over your hometown is more exciting than sitting in coach on a 747. Whether you want to jetpack just sixteen feet over the ocean surface or soar a mile and a half over the Earth, flight is a fun and accessible way to spend an afternoon.
Jamie McMackin is a flying adventure enthusiast. He enjoys sharing his stories and insights on various websites. Visit Wish.co.uk to browse through their experience days.
