That jungle road strip doesnt look too bad from that angle... You'd fire a 182 etc in there just wing clearance wouldn't suit a low wing. The microlight guys can fly in an out of amazing small spaces. There are a few biggies that make the difference, inertia (double the weight 4 times the intertia) and ground pressure of the heavier weight. Where a microlight can approach at 40mph, and have 0.7 of a ton to stop then that's no a huge amount of inertia. The tires wont cut in and leave you stuck there in most cases.
Consider a C401 etc going into that same grass field at 90mph having to stop 3.4 ton on smallish tires and no reverse thrust. There are guy's able to throw those big planes into short, narrow grass strips with full loads. The skill factor for that is way higher than you'd ever realise until you weigh it up. Was looking at the strip in the middle of Haydock with the tree's, narrow markers each side and TV screen's to avoid - it surely must be tricky to land light twins in there.
The STOL thing is really a function of touchdown speed/inertia/ability to stop coupled ability to control all those factors precisely. If you wanted to get red hot at it, well it just takes lots of practice. When it all goes wrong then... pull the mixture and make a funny face!
