Old Pilot or Bold Pilot....
Jan Olie, very sensible to treat the ENGLISH channel with caution....do they call it by a different name in the Low Countries?
I have flown across it a few times in my Supercub GOFER, but always at the greatest height permissible....better chance of gliding to a beach from 8,000 rather than the 2,000 that the chaps sitting in an office would suggest!
And as I asked them nicely, they always said yes! so worth asking, IMHO.
Reverting to the original subject of this thread, thought all you pedantic pilots might enjoy another story, when my glider was officially cleared to land at RAF Fairford....
I was planning a 300 k triangle from High Wycombe. And so do communicate with any enroute military controllers, finding them always helpful.
Abeam Brize Norton, tracking toward Bristol, getting low. Getting uncomfortably low, still on the frequency to Brize, and with this simply enormous empty airfield not far ahead, I mentioned my problem to Brize. Who actually suggested I land at Fairford....and told me to radio them directly but I said unable, too busy.
So from then on Brize spoke to Fairford who said no problem. Given permission, I landed on the main runway. Coming to meet me, an American jeep with a full patrol, ready for any emergency.
They were soon persuaded I was not a security threat, the base commander turned up as well,and we arranged for my friends from the gliding club to bring a trailer onto the military field. A milkshake and a burger for lunch, hospitality American style at an RAF airfield!
"Good thing you didn't land on the grass," the officer told me, ...seems it was full of wooden stakes marking places for the visitors expected on the weekend, for the Air Tattoo!