I wonder how the French (to give one of many cases) handle their PPLs' ability to fly above an overcast layer. Anyone here know the French PPL training syllabus?
An Irish PPL also allows you to fly over an overcast. There is very little radio navigation included in the syllabus. We have to show we can track directly to a VOR, and from a VOR on a radial, but that's about it. In fact come to think of it, I'm not sure I was even asked to demonstrate this on my skills test, but that could be a memory error.
There is also some VOR stuff on the ground exams, but not much.
Certainly nothing to prepare you for flying withour reference to the surface.
dp