/Engage Christopher Hitchens "contrariwise, said Alice" mode
I may get zapped for saying this, but I’ll say it anyway. Over-confidence can of course, be a real killer in all forms of aviation. One of the clichés of recreational flying is that a hundred-hour PPL who thinks he/she knows it all is likely to be a dangerous character. Can there, however, be a potentially dangerous level of UNDER-confidence? Accidentally or otherwise, the posts from our new contributor suggest a level of, to be blunt, timidity, which is surprising in someone who has had the motivation to get a PPL in the first place. The initial posting gave the impression that Mr S planned to meander down towards France, at a level which would put him inside class A airspace if he took any sort of predictable route from Norwich to Dover, stooge about a bit, and then fly back again, apparently reluctant, for no readily apparent reason, to talk to the perfectly civilized people at Lille, Le Touquet, Calais etc, or to land on a runway which looks and functions just like a runway (even if it is called a piste), by the process of wobbling ailerons, elevators and so on through air molecules which, amazingly, behave just like the ones back home. The basic info on crossing FIR boundaries and so forth is readily available in the books, the magazines, on the boards at most flying clubs, and on dozens of websites, and tends to get chatted about in GA pilot bars and coffee rooms. Samir now tells us that he hasn’t landed by himself at anywhere in the UK other than his base field. Not even, say, at Norwich, a normal, non-scary full ATC field a few minutes flying from his base. What a pity.
I agree with those above who have made the point that crossing the channel in a light single is straightforward. Any recently qualified PPL ought to be able to do it, and it’s fun to do. Teaming up with another PPL, perhaps a fellow newcomer to the hobby, is an excellent way to make light of the workload (which isn’t really all that high anyway). Anyway, I’d better forget about lifejackets, immersion suits, rafts and the like, as after posting this I may be facing hazards more igneous than aqueous.
/Christopher Hitchens mode disengaged