it’s been six years since I got my PPL and five since my IRR but forums like this had led me to always bottle out of the cross channel flight.
Sorry to hear that, forums should encourage people not put them off.
Like I have said before though, there is a difference between Lydd to L2k and a longer crossing (say bournemouth to Jersey direct).
Altitude was 5,000 feet which meant I was only out of glide range for a few minutes.
I honestly cannot remember the last time I hit 5000ft!
Try flying from Jersey ;-) Our
standard departure clearance is "not above 1000ft" from Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney and towards french coast (Zone boundary).
You soon get use to looking for (tall) cruise ships to go around, and looking for the next rock or fishing boat to mentally log for which way to head should it all go quiet up front
There is a long running thread about flying over water on pprune which puts a lot of people off I think, a range of feelings from "hell no, not out of gliding range" to "whatever, if the fan stops I dont want thousands of feet to think about what might be" :-)
Clubs like the Jersey Aero Club fly all early PPL lessons 100% over the sea in the local training area, which is all sea, and well out of gliding range.