27/09;
Here in EASA land airways are controlled airspace. IFR outside CAS is perfectly permissible. For her he route described earlier, there is an airway well above and a plenty of CAS for Bristol and Cardiff which puts the base way up.
I fly rotary mainly and fixed wing when ops let me and an awful lot of my Public Transport rotary flying is IFR outside CAS. It's the way it is and it works.
SND