Well done Kolibear...!
I started doing cross channel trips from Southend many years ago after taking my IMC with Danny Woolf.
Happy memories of hacking over in AVNO and BIGJ. I am still crossing regularly but now from an airfield just a bit further North.
It was interesting reading your thoughts on Bleriot for whom, incidently, the Calais aeroport is named.
When I am musing quietly on the trip, I often think of the young kids who flew just 65 years ago to do battle in the skies far above our cruising altitude. At closing speeds of 600mph, it would not take the opposing sides long to meet as they left Southend and Calais. As I look down on the land and sea enjoying the view, I also try to remember that, for many, this was their last earthly sight.
Lest we forget....