OK, just to provide a little constrast to all of the (interesting) military stories, here's mine...
I paid for a ride in a sightseeing Hughes 500D back in the '80s on Kauai, Hawaii. An older couple, my wife and I were passengers. The pilot saw that I was the only one with a camera and suggested I take the left rear seat, which I did. After I fastened the seat belt I realized that I was the only one without a door and figured this would be the closest I would ever get to "The Huey Experience". As weird as it may seem, there was very little wind or noise even considering that I was wearing a headset. Almost instinctively I put my hand "out the window" to "play with the air" as you typically do with a car window. As soon as I got my palm outside of the door frame, it was slammed back into the rear of the frame. I guess we really were moving through the air pretty fast! I looked over the front seats to see that the airspeed indicator read 80 knots. So with a little caution, I was able to stick the camera and my head outside to take a peek at the main and tail rotors (don't how how safe this was but I had to try it ;^).
As for falling out of the helicopter, I never felt like I was at risk of tumbling out the door, even if I hadn't been wearing a seat belt. I found this a little surprising. At the end of the tour, I thought the ride was pretty sedate but the other passengers were not walking very straight and my wife was turning green. Even though it was a totally tourist thing, I still thought it was a terrific experience!
Martin IPMS 44668