Perhaps Dublin Pilot would like to remind us just how much touring has been done in his club........Have members flown to Italy, France, Spain etc. All PPL flying VFR. It ain't rocket science.
DFC,
I'm not sure how much use this will be to you, but in reply to your question.
I'm in a club with about 40 members, and have been a member there for about 3 or 4 years now. In that period, I have toured around much of France, a little bit of Spain, and extensively around the UK. One other club member has toured much of France and the UK (while flying with me). Four of us did a Spanish tour in 2006, but they only did it because they had someone else to 'show them what to do'. They wouldn't have done it unless I organised it, planned all the routes and flights for them, showed them were to get the required info, organised PPR, explained the different airspace etc.
So apart from the friend that has toured with me, and apart from the two others who be brought along on the Spanish trip (and that was their only foreign trip), I reckon no more than four other members of the club have left the island in the 3 or 4 years that I've been a member. Of those four or five, none ventured any further than the Isle of Mann or Wales. What's worrying is that I don't think that this is untypical. There is another club located beside us, and I think they would be in a similar position....one or two members will venture far afield, and the vast majority will stick to local flights.
In the school where I trained (one of the busiest in the country at the time) I can only recollect hearing of one PPL who ventured to the Isle of Mann, and noone any further. The one exception to this was a school organised student fly out to Avranche.
People are afraid of getting stuck in bad weather when going away. I won't pretend that it's the only reason, there are others, such as costs, experience vs confidence, family commitments and probably (as IO always says) the PPL training not equipping them with the skills to do serious flights. But I do believe that the fear of the weather is a big part of it. Remember from the point of view of people in the South East of the UK, they don't have far to go to reach the continent, and hopefully some nicer weather. We generally have at least three-four hours of flying before we reach the continent (depending on speeds and locations).
I hope EASA decides to look at the LAPL again, and allow for IMC privileges to be attached to it. It would make a huge difference to us over here.
dp