I’m less likely to run into other VFR traffic because it mostly crawls along at 1500 ft!
That’s what I believed! Until I departed for Koblenz over the “Hohes Venn” / “Hautes Fagnes” area on the Belgian/German border, merrily cruising at 3000’ AMSL on a heading of 90 degrees or so, when a set of four parapentes popped up going exactly the other way, and at least a 1000’ higher. I presume they were carefully respecting the 4000’ VFR altitude, but they did give me quite a start. Thankfully they were slow, very slow.
The “1500ft” thing is a mostly UK thing, especially in the southern UK where there is no real terrain. Nearly all PPL training takes place at or below 2000ft and that’s it. Also there is a lot of Class A or Class D bases around 2500ft so, together with the MSA being say 1500ft (due to a 500ft AMSL tower, which there are plenty of) that encourages flying under the CAS at 1500-2400ft. So I fly around the UK a lot at 2400ft too – it is the “zero brain required” way of flying.
Outside the UK, people usually fly higher, but against that (or, in your favour, if you like) you have the much reduced GA activity level in much of Europe.
Non-IR pilots based near London are generally condemned to 10 or 15 minutes of bumping around under the class A CAS and often in the murk below 2500’ before they can get to the Channel or out west where the CAS rises. And with UK’s class A airways dotted about it’s often impossible to fly high, say 8,000, for long before running into restricted airspace. So unless you’re fully IR, and not just IMC-rated like me, you’re always having to dodge about. So it’s great to get over France or Germany where you can just settle into a semi-circular VFR flight level high up on a flight plan, maybe 8,500 or 9,500’ in smooth smooth air, flip on the AP, put some music through the bluetooth, and chill. Once passengers have tried it, I’m sure they’ll never go back. Of course, that’s only going to work if you’re over the cloud tops, and as ever the challenge when heading for them is knowing if you’re going to get there before you run out of steam (or run into ice). Otherwise, it’s back down to 3,000, and bumpety bump.
