Just a few precisions here. While agreeing with the sentiment of what IO540 says, I'm going to pick on some of the details:
basically you start with the Jepp 1:500k VFR charts, and then move to the US (1995-1998 last updated) ONC 1:1M charts, and tape the whole lot together on the floor of one's lounge. Get a long piece of wood and draw lines.
...presumably you do split it all back apart before you get in the aircraft? Must be quite a sight otherwise
With VFR, one plans two routes: one wholly OCAS, and one which one will fly if one gets CAS transits.
To be honest, it is usually pretty clear where you can and where you cannot go VFR in Europe. The tend to make the serious stuff class A so that's quite simply no go. There are also a few other places where you will be routed along corridors (e.g., Marseille), or where you would not count on getting a transit (e.g., Genève), but for the most part you are cleared through classes C and D as a matter of course.
From a very cursory look at jxc's possible routes, the "direct" route only has to contend with Brussels and Vienna. His other idea of going through France and Italy involves a detour around Paris airspace and being a bit careful not to get too close to Geneva. In any event, I think trying to plan an entire trip like this OCAS is absolute overkill.
Obviously a decent GPS is a must unless one is a masochist.
I crossed all of Western Europe and back not only without a GPS, but without a working DI as well, and yes I am a masochist (I like to call it "character")
[I also crossed half of Italy without a map, btw, but that's a different story
]
However, if you do carry a GPS of some description where you can enter your waypoints and follow the arrow, it obviously makes life so much easier, but the alternative is not a showstopper by any means.
One needs to transpose the essential CAS shapes onto the ONC charts (because they don't show CAS) and this can come from either Navbox or from the Jepp IFR charts. It gets pretty messy.
I don't have any experience of navigating outside the coverage of existing VFR charts so I can't comment, but since ONC charts don't show airspace or much of anything anyway, and they tend to be horribly out of date, wouldn't it be preferrable to use instead a Michelin road map in the way you suggest?
South of the Alps, and keeping away from Italian controllers (who tend to not know what they are doing) nobody really cares much what you are doing...
I have to say, on my flights in Northern Italy ATC have been most helpful and always on the ball, but I'm aware that my opinion is in the minority.
The Alps can be crossed obviously to the east or to the west. The eastern crossing (from Austria) is more on the route. However a C172 should, if light, be able to go straight over the top from Switzerland, with oxygen.
I was thinking going through the valleys, but I realise that's not an option for someone without mountain experience, breath-taking as it is. Completely avoiding the Alps leaves two options I can think of: one is flying to Cannes (which in a C172 requires one stopover), then crossing Italy north of Bologna towards Slovenia, the other is as you suggest, via Austria pretty much anywhere East of Innsbruck.
Alternatively, you could cross from Chambéry to Aosta at FL100 without much difficulty. If you're going to consider this, send me a PM and I'll give you proper gen. Of course, you would then need to be careful with Milan, as from memory I seem to remember there was some fairly restrictive airspace there.
It's no rocket science but long VFR trips like this need a lot of planning.
Unless one is retired, in which case no planning is required
Indeed.
And a good GPS because these are not places to get lost like one can do in the UK.
Actually, you are under radar coverage practically all of the way. They tend to call you if you don't appear to be going where you told them you were going.
172Driver,
How long's a piece of string? They vary wildly, anything from about 3 1/2 hours to 6 hours to dry tanks.
Agreed. I based my calculations on a range of 400nm just for the sake of argument. That's about as far as I can sensibly go with the Hawk XP I use.
One thing I'd like to draw your attention to is the ELT issue. Check what you need where
Good point