From my perspective, the comparison of how riding a unicycle is to riding a bike, is similar in many ways to how flying a helicopter (at least of the type I can fly) is to flying an airplane. A bicycle can balance itself when in motion, which is why you can push it and let go and it will roll on its own. If you push a unicycle and let go, it will just fall down. The unicycle, like the helicopter, must be made stable and operable by the rider of the unicycle or pilot of the helicopter. If I were to let go of the cyclic control (the main “joystick”) in the helicopter I’ve flown, I would immediately crash (likely after rolling upside down and having my rotor separate from the mast). The helicopter cannot fly by itself, unlike airplanes that have flown for hundreds of miles with the pilot incapacitated. Granted, there are more advanced helicopters with autopilot systems, but I’ve never flown that variety. And even in those helicopters, the unstable helicopter is made stable only through the use of electronics and numerous advanced technologies. However, there are much simpler, less expensive types of helicopters (Enstrom is one of them and maybe even the larger than 2-seat Robinson helicopters, I believe) in which the pilot can trim the main rotors to enable the pilot to take his hand off the cyclic when flying straight and level. Trim is nothing like an autopilot system, but at least you you can take your hand off the stick during certain times in your flight without dying. No standard configuration helicopter (one main rotor + tail rotor) is inherently stable without the addition of a stabilization system or trim system (which can only keep it stable under certain circumstances). Sorry for potentially babbling too much about aviation on a unicycling forum, but my initial analogy was relevant and once you get a pilot started talking about aviation, you are always in dire jeopardy of being subjected to ongoing (and potentially onerous for non-aviation folks) ramblings.