Quote:

the simple method is "crash-and-glide"


This reminds me, that a bee and similar insects indeed bump into things sometimes.
Let them bounce, when they hit a surface, and let them trace for the target a short amount of time later.
Or, let them try to achieve the same height as the target first, if they hit the plate at its downside, let them bounce in a random direction for a very short time and fly up again. When they reached the height of the player/target, trace for the player.

http://www.puppenheim.org/
http://www.wuerfels-welt.de
Old Game Tutorial: http://www.puppenheim.org/MITutorial.zip
Free Game Editor: http://puppenheim.org/AlienalsWeihnachtsmann.zip
http://www.puppenheim.org/blender_starting_main_settings.txt