...there being no legal requirement for insurance within the UK.

Me thinks thou doth protest too much, MC

You replied to this comment:

...may not grant cover to a pilot wanting to rent...

Whilst there may be no legal requirement for insurance, there may well be a "club/hirer" requirement for insurance, and such insurance may be voided if you haven't been "checked-out", and to be "checked-out" for other than an IR-renewal you can only log P/ut and not P1 or P1s...

So there :rolleyes:

In the Channel Islands a lot of the instruction for the issue of a JAR PPL is carried out within the Brest FIR and we send our students on Nav Ex's solo over France. At no time in the last 40 years has this been a problem. We just have to send a copy of the medical certificate to the CAA and they issue a dispensation for a student (who has no licence) to fly outside UK airspace.
So I suggest you dont believe all that you hear.

Regrettably this 'can I log it' debate is clouded by the CAA, JAA, the desperation of 'hours builders' and meaningless nonsense like 'SP1C U/T' or whatever it's termed.

Commonsense would indicate that if you're being taught something (such as a cross-Channel check) by an instructor, then you are the student and the FI is the Commander. Simply and easy - FI is P1C you are P U/T (but really ought to be P1/S if there was any sense in the world!).

But since when did the expressions 'CAA' or 'JAA' appear in the same sentence as 'commonsense'....