Knight Paladin
To be honest, I did not read your 'outside ATZ' comments.. I have no opinion really on airfields without an ATZ othe than I am sure that it's just down to discipline and good lookout.
Shoreham though is as stated. It can be murdurously busy with VFR and IFR tarffic. The IFR procedures being mostly oustide controlled airspace.
My main gripe was the pilot concerned being in and out of cloud in the realms of that VFR and potentially IFR traffic with no radio. It was not against microlights as i quite like the look of them (OK some of them). It was the above incident in an aircraft that should not have been in that stage of flight inside Shorehams ATZ.
I agree that VMC on top is great if you know where you are, and you have the aircraft to do it in and you can safely descend through that coud again. Spatial disorientation / controlled flight into terrain and all that.....