A Winter or two back, I stumbled across some of the neatest/craziest slow-speed precision flying I've ever seen.
I don't remember the plane models (or even what class to call it), but they were basically small fixed-wing aircraft. Not ultra-light configurations.... think mini Cessna, very light weight.The ones that could afford it, had slightly hot-rodded engines swapped in.
Very short take off rolls..... vertigo safe to watch - they'll have fly-in's at remote small airports. Get out the tape-measure, and it's a Run Whatcha Brung event..... shortest lift off wins. Crazy how little distance they needed to get airborne.
Go AnyWhere..... that's where they had me...... These planes often had very big balloon main-tires. Added to drag, but allowed them to land on beaches (sand or low-profile stone) and relatively smooth random fields. Not much different than how the Wright Bros did it !
One of the most spectacular vids was several of these planes landing on a tabletop mountain. There was no other way up there; you only way down was to fly off, or wait for helicopter rescue.
Sounds crazy, and probably is..... but these guys looked sane enough; many had obviously spent many years training and prepping their planes.
I've never taken flying lessons, so had to relate what I saw to something I know better - motorcycles.
If somebody with absolutely no experience with motorcycles saw a Trials Rider performing, they might think "Cool." Followed by "Looks easy, maybe I should try that".
I think of the pilots I was describing as Trials Riders, in The Air.
Rgds, D.