Microlights are small personal aircraft, which usually hold one or two people. Despite being motorised, their wings are usually operated by the pilot manually, often taking the form of a glider that is bolted onto the aircraft.

Speaking from the airfield she usually flies from, Ms Smith tells C+D they look like “the unholy marriage between a hand glider and a pushchair”.

“It feels like you’re floating,” she says. “It’s exhilarating – particularly landings and take offs.

“But also [at] this time of year, you get the sunny summer’s evenings when all the thermic activity has gone out of the air and it’s all flat and smooth; the air is like silk, everything is tinted gold and it’s just amazing.”

Ms Smith’s enthusiasm for the pastime actually arose from a fear of heights. “I wanted a 45-minute microlighting experience for my birthday. The idea was that I would go to the airfield, have my 45 minutes, say ‘thank you’ and never, ever look at a microlight again,” she says. “It kind of didn’t work out that way.

“It’s one of those [things] where you just think: ‘It’s terrifying but I can’t not do this again’.

“I’m still afraid of heights. COVID has been bad for me because we’ve been grounded a lot, and every time I’m grounded for a period, the fear of being up there in something that’s basically a shopping cart comes back, and I have to get used to it all over again.”

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Ms Smith says, as a leisure industry microlighters and microlighting instructors were grounded as trips were deemed non-essential. But microlighters have slowly been allowed to return to the airfield as restrictions have eased.

And there is a strong social side to the activity. Just before speaking to C+D, Ms Smith had attended a fly-in curry night at a local airfield. Though the hobby is “heavily male-dominated”, Ms Smith notes, “I don’t think I’ve met a pilot yet who hasn’t been really friendly and ready to discuss aviation”.

For those interested in trying out microlighting, Ms Smith’s message is clear: “Do it – definitely do it. Because it’s not like we kidnap people and tie them down; if you don’t like it, then you are allowed to leave. But if you do like it, then just think of what you’ve been missing if you don’t try it.”

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