SEP over water - do you? And if so how far will you go?
I've just returned to flying after a bit of a break and I'm looking for things to do - trips to undertake, qualifications to add etc to keep the passion alive, broaden my skill set and keep the accuracy up, rather than get stale flying local VFR trips.
A couple of trips I'm idly considering are a trip to the Isle of Man for the TT races this summer - to provide moral support to someone I know racing there, to nip down to Le Sarthe to watch the Le Mans classic, and to pop across to the Scillies to meet a chum who's sailing there.
All require an overwater leg. The Scillies is the shortest at about 30 miles, the IoM would be 40-45 and the cross channel from the SW is 100-120 miles.
I did a cross channel check ride years ago. I was nervous then about an overwater flight in a fixed undercarriage aircraft - if the donkey stops the ditching options are exceptionally limited. Now I'm older and allegedly wiser, it still doesn't fill me with joy.
And yet I suppose when I add night or IMC ratings my ditching options are going to be very limited, and any flying over mountainous terrain also leaves few options. And so far the noisy oily spinny bits have kept being noisy, oily and spinny... And the MTBF is pretty high with aero engines.
So I guess it's all in my head. Fear of sinking, trapped in an upturned cockpit or something. So what's a normal approach to over water flights in a SEP? Do you guys limit yourself to 'within gliding distance of land' or are you all grizzled ferry pilots with countless North Atlantic crossings under your belt? Or perhaps somewhere in between? How do you mitigate the risk when flying in any 'limited landing options' environment?