I don't think Andy, it's any more illegal than, say, bungee jumping down the middle of the Eiffel Tower, just a bit silly.
Your lack of hours has probably just failed to make you sufficiently overconfident yet. The art of survival is staying nervous.
Pre 1996 reports aren't anywhere online, but there should be a couple of libraries such as the British Library in London or the Bodleian in Oxford that have a full set. I don't think the RAeS library does, but you could try them; I'm sure some other less accessible technical libraries such as what used to be called the RAE library at Farnborough do.
G