LJ ... Just a bit of a leg pull old chap
Mind you during the mid 70's, when I were a lad, I was lucky enough to do a few weekend RH Seat trips in a Partenavia out of Lydd as an unofficial U/T "plotter" (unpaid) for the Coast Guard English Channel Traffic charter while doing my PPL ... This was before G-HMCG (Islander) took up the work ... in the beginning a Royal Navy Devon covered the Channel during the working week out of RAF Manston with the Partenavia then the Islander out of Lydd at the weekends ... until the Islander took over full time.
Great fun as everything was legal low level to ID naughty ships not complying with Channel Lane procedure.
Cheap to operate ... single pilot operation ... reasonably good handling at low level.
Unfortunately I never managed to wangle a ride in either the Devon or Islander
Best ...
Coff.