Microlight Flight

I once saw a man on Hout Bay beach with his own flying contraption. I am calling it a contraption because neither me nor my husband could remember what it was called. We thought of names such as paragliding, no, that’s not it, parasailing, no silly, that’s in the water and then turbo flight; that one we made up. But I have since then been enlightened and now know the correct term for this man’s activity – it is microlight flight.

Thinking back to that moment on the beach, I actually had never heard of this term before so we would have never come up with the correct name anyway – it would be the last name I would have given such an incredible contraption. In my mind ‘micro’ means small and ‘light’ means, well, the opposite of heavy and ‘flight’ is just flight so that is not misleading at all. If I had to make up a name it would be maxiheavy flight – a far more appropriate name I think...

Anyway, according to SAVenues.com it is considered to be the motorbike of the sky. This I can believe; it does resemble a motorbike with large wings – quite a novel idea. I think that I am definitely up for a microlight flight experience.

This feels a lot safer than the aerobatic flights I wrote about before, and with the microlight flight experience you actually have an opportunity to look around and admire the view without fearing the next life-threatening 360 degree turn. Can you imaging flying over the ocean and spotting a school of dolphins or even a great white shark? If I am going to go up in the air in a random contraption I want to at least experience all the wonders of flying and one of those wonders is seeing the world from a different angle.

By observing this man do his microlight flight thing over Hout Bay beach, it seemed that it didn’t go that fast either. It wasn’t a Sunday-driver kind of slow but more a this-is-fun-and-I-feel-safe kind of fast. I have to just add that I was in complete awe of this man that, at 4pm, parked his car at the beach, took out his microlight flight contraption, got it ready and off he went. Most people go for a jog after work (most people are still at work at 4pm) but not this guy...he flies.

Who ever thought of this motorbike in the sky idea (and was brave enough to try it out) was a genius. I am comforted by the fact that this contraption has been tried and tested for many many years, so it is now up to us to be like Hout Bay beach man and fly – fly like maxiheavy birds in the sky.