Originally Posted by
Piper.Classique
What is this cross channel check out nonsense? Anyone with a PPL should be able to carry out a cross country flight without an extra check out. A cross channel is just that, a cross country with an additional requirement for a passport or equivalent document, and a PLB or ELT for most countries. Water? Oh yes, right. Carry a lifejacket plus whatever other safety equipment you feel is needed. It's probably safer than vast expanses of pine forests, anyway.
There are lakes wider than the English channel, FFS.
Oh I give up truly I do. It's not even as if you need to learn another language if you have a UK licence.
Actually if you are renting someone else's plane then a cross channel checkout is normally part of the conditions of hire (
Example A).
Yes flying from Lydd to L2k is easy, quick (20mins chock to chock) and anyone post-ppl should be able to do it, but flying Bournemouth to Jersey (100 miles, with no land in sight for over 30 mins) is a different kettle of fish and having literally no horizon, and misty visibility can be very disorienting for a low-hour ppl with no IR(R) rating.
Most conversations on here about "Cross Channel Checkout" talk about the Lydd to L2K, - that to me is not a cross channel trip (although technically it is). I've done scarier circuits than that trip. You are almost always in view view of both land masses at all times. Its like flying from Jersey to France, I can actually see the french coast from my Kitchen here!
The challenges on a 100mile across open water, with no land mass in sight for significant amount of time (in a single pilot, single engine aircraft) are different than flying from Lydd to L2k. Imagine crossing 100miles of water and getting to Jersey when the fog just appeared from no where, and then having to divert to France... or worse just turning around and going back to the UK again. It happens. Yes a PPL should be able to cope (on paper) with this, but experience is best gained in an environment of learning (i.e where someone is with you) rather than an environment of fear (where you are being hit with new experience after new experience).
I believe (real) cross channel checkouts have their place. Although there has been A LOT of discussion already of this (as well as single engine flight over water, ranging from "hell no - never fly out of gliding range", to "pfff we take off and are over water in seconds") on these forums.
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It's not even as if you need to learn another language if you have a UK licence
Um, depends on where else you are going to after you hit France. If you are going onto a smaller airport a LOT of french airfields are marked FR ONLY (FR seulement) on the plates/AIP, meaning that all radio calls need to be in french only!
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and a PLB or ELT for most countries
Since the implementation of Part NCO (Non-Commercial operations with Other-than-complex-powered aircraft), it is a requirement to carry an Emergency Locator Transmitter (ELT) or Personal Locator Beacon (PLB) on light aeroplanes and helicopters used privately for ALL (certified CoA planes, not permit) flights - not just ones over water!
Carry a lifejacket
No. Wear a lifejacket.