Visit your local airport and ask for a training demonstration flight. They're all great folks and I bet you'd really enjoy it as you obviously like a challenge...
I don’t fly commercial, being over 100 times more dangerous than commercial doesn’t help: in 2005 general aviation in the United States (excluding charter) suffered 1.31 fatal accidents for every 100,000 hours of flying in that country, compared to 0.016 for scheduled airline flights.
If they didn’t land on houses, I wouldn’t mine. I knew people in a house in Hill Top Lakes that was burned down, pilot killed when he tried to land at their small airport.
No thanks, I’m not a base jumper or flier. Again, with one, the public isn’t at risk.