Jean Spear
Microlighting is like being on a scrambler, 600m up. There is something only a microlight pilot can describe about being so high, so vulnerable, with the wind in your face and the ocean below your feet.
That’s because the passenger is too busy screaming and trying to breathe.
“This is proper flying,” says instructor Bradley Levitan, who flies tourists off the coast near Bloubergstrand, Cape Town. “Its not like sitting in an office with a whole lot of buttons to push if something goes wrong.”
He’s right, its more like sitting in a shopping trolley in the sky.
But once you’ve been taken on this rollercoaster ride, you’ll find flying in Boeings boring, clumsy and way too claustrophobic.
A trip in a microlight is so worthwhile because it offers a different perspective on places where you thought you’d done it all.
You’ve seen Cape Town by car, by foot and mountain bike, but from 600m up, it is a whole different city.
You’ve picnicked at Haartebeestpoort dam, been hiking to God’s Window, walked in the Drakensberg, watched whales at Hermanus, but a few spiral turns above some of South Africa’s most scenic countryside combines the best parts of the outdoors: fresh air, spectacular views and adrenalin.
The Bloubergstrand flight takes passengers on a sensory trip – the smell of bacon and eggs wafts up from hotels on the beachfront, way below. Sharks, dolphins and surfers are silhouetted against a transparent ocean. On some days, a wall of mist forms, like a protective barrier guarding Robben Island from the two pairs of human eyes in the mechanical bird.
In the distance Table Bay shimmers in the early light, and with deft movements Levitan drops the microlight 60m at a time, so that the machine glides above the breaking waves of Bloubergstrand.
Levitan fits each passenger with a video camera mounted to a helmet which records all conversations (and screams). Passengers get to take the video home as a souvenir to appreciate the trip with both feet on the ground.
The young pilot is also planning a day- trip route over the winelands of Stellenbosch for tourists – a microlight can land just about anywhere and he will be able to fly on to individual wine estates, where guests can enjoy lunch and wine tasting.
It’s a magnificent trip, if you can hang on to your stomach and enjoy the bumpy ride.
Microlighting is also one way to overcome a fear of heights and it’s become more than just flying an airborne lawnmower. New hi-tech designs and wing spans of more than 14m, are based on the same shape as a bird’s wing and it’s the closest thing you’ll get to being a bird. But, says Levitan, the feeling of flying the old-fashioned way cannot be beaten.
He’s flown around South Africa in his microlight.
Like most microlight pilots, Levitan is passionate about his aircraft and dedicated to the sport. And there is enough dedication from pilots across the country to ensure that microlight clubs are everywhere. These organise “fly aways” on weekends, much like breakfast runs on Harley Davidsons.
Many of the enthusiasts will tell you that they got hooked the moment the wheels left the ground on their first trip.
“It turned out to be the most expensive ride I ever took,” says Dave Neill, an enthusiast who runs his own website with updates of his latest flights.
“I paid a R100 for a 30-minute flight and R100E000 later I’m a pilot with my own microlight.”
As a converted sceptic, I have to say the more microlights the better. These airborne trolleys beat feet, bike and 4×4 by far.
Outthere Microlighting, Cape Town, can be contacted on Tel: 082 492 5367