I fly often from Jersey to france, did most of my PPL over water in the islands, but have not yet done UK to Jersey... thats out of sight for too long for me.
When I went to Jersey a few months back, my departure clearance back to London was " not above 1,200' on track MP ".
To which I responded " Negative, unable to fly direct MP at 1,200' or below "
The tower responded " Roger. Expect higher before coasting out "
After takeoff runway 26, I took a right hand turn to remain within gliding range of the coast and followed it till Fremont TV Mast where I finally got a gap in ATC to request higher before coasting out, and started taking up a holding pattern just west of the mast. I was holding for approximately 5minutes before ATC finally gave me the clearance to 5,000' initially, then up to FL100. They seemed a little flabbergasted by my lack of willingness to continue at a lower altitude.
We were all of course wearing life jackets, and had a life raft as well as PLB but why take the risk!?
Albeit to their credit however - they were very accommodating on our visit, and were all fantastically nice to us. From the fuel truck, to the people at the local flying club, to the people in the tower. But this does beg the question if this is normal practice in the islands to fly out of gliding range?