Did my first trip across the channel at the weekend (to St Omer and back), and being from lovely class G covered North E Scotland, the amount of traffic in the SE of England was quite a surprise.
Had 2 or 3 moments in the one flight with aircraft on constant bearings which we had to turn and avoid - they either hadn't see us (all lights on/waggling wings but no joy), or weren't going to move. And none of them were talking to who we were.
A high wing cessna which dropped out of the 1500 cloud base in front of us, a Robin on a reciprocal heading 200 ft below, a high wing cessna into South-end who wasn't moving for anyone, an those are just the ones we could see!
And the RT was terrible - Poor London Info controllers having to tell people to stop broadcasting all over each other - one french guy stomped on 5 tx in a row and had a very "pointed" response from London.
We're now seriously considering a XRX, as it wasn't funny after the 2nd or 3rd time - but given the number of "negative transponder" calls to London, who knows!
And it was especially annoying as it was always *us* that had to turn away for an orbit - they just kept plodding on.
Mandatory transponders and mode S suddenly started seeming like a very very good idea!