Bahn Jeaux
I can remember when I took up flying over 20 years ago I had an ill conceived idea in my head that I could use an aircraft like a car and with the same reliability of getting to my destination.
Follow the roads at 200 feet and all that. That idea was soon dispelled when i took up flying.
The problem with going anywhere especially in the UK is weather.
The days when you get CAVOK across the whole length of the UK are minimal meaning you can start off in good weather and soon find that changes putting new pilots in situations they are not equipt to deal with.
To use an aircraft with any reliability of getting there means the aircraft has to be equipt to deal with weather, icing etc. The aircraft has to be equipt to fly in clouds and preferably have two engines although many here wont agree with that
On top of the aircraft requirements are the pilots ability, ratings and experience.
Have a well equipt aircraft with a pilot with an IR and experience and he will be able to travel long distance most of the time with a good get there reliability.
Go down to a microlight which is really designed to travel pure VFR and where you can go with it is more limited.
There are pilots with bags of experience and know how who make a pretty good job of getting around in minimal VFR.
Then you get the newbies who are responsible, know their limitations, their aircraft limitations and operate within those limitations.
As their experience builds they may add ratings and expand their capability further.
Lastly you get pilots like our mr biggles who dont know what they are doing, who think they do and who end up in one big mess like our Mr Biggles.
Most people who nearly loose their lives like our Mr Biggles take stock, are humble and learn a big lesson which hopefully leads them to being better more experienced pilots.
Mr Biggles landed in a tree, he was very lucky the tree held the aircraft and that his aircraft did not fall vertically to the ground otherwise he may not be here to argue his case. That point seems to be lost on him.
The sad thing is that some people do not learn. They are in denial and those are the ones who become not only a danger to themselves but to others who come across their path.
I very much hope Mr Biggles isnt one of those as I hope he flies for years to come and does use this experience to learn from.
Pace