I wonder. The channel seems to pose a huge psychological barrier for British people. Yet it’s only a stretch of 20 NM. It’s the same distance as crossing the local fjord here, my son did it on his first solo nav flight.
Crossing boarders etc seems to be a problem mainly for British people ? It seems to be a big thing for brits, but it’s a non-issue for everyone else. Why is that? Could it be that you deliberately make it a problem?
The channel seems to pose a huge psychological barrier for British people
Having been through the UK sausage machine, and having met with / corresponded with thousands of GA pilots around Europe, I can tell you this is mainly from the PPL training establishment.
And it isn’t just a UK thing. The reality of GA in Europe is that the vast majority of GA activity is “very short range aeroclub stuff” (50nm say). In central Europe, or within countries which have a coast but where there is little perceived advantage in crossing the water (France being the best example, other than a small number flying to Corsica) the “club flying” is mostly to nearby airfields. And they carry on doing that until they give up / lose medical / whatever. ELP issues also stop a lot of international touring.
In the UK, and the south UK especially, mainland Europe, especially N France, is a great attraction. It gets you away from the dreary British all-day-breakfast airport cafes and hugely popular GA airfields which are in the middle of nowhere. But the schools can’t let a fresh PPL do such a massively complicated expedition to the North Pole! The pinnacle of the training process was the QXC which is a 150nm flight around three well worn waypoints, on which one “cannot possibly get lost” because it is done in almost CAVOK conditions (actually a few did get lost, usually flying around until they landed somewhere else). I knew people who waited for months for their QXC (usual summer haze, 5k vis). So they have a thing called a “cross channel checkout” which might be a flight to Le Touquet, with an instructor… Nice earner for the school; 2hrs’ rental billed, 2hrs FI time billed. But it probably is a good thing, to be honest. A fresh PPL doesn’t know how to plan such a flight. If you can go Shoreham to Le Touquet, you can fly anywhere (seriously).
So a lot of people are a bit scared of crossing the water. Also the vast majority of rental hardware doesn’t come with a raft, and a raft costs £1k+ so a renter isn’t likely to buy his own. But it is the same for mainland Europeans crossing the water to the UK.
Crossing boarders etc seems to be a problem mainly for British people ? It seems to be a big thing for brits, but it’s a non-issue for everyone else. Why is that? Could it be that you deliberately make it a problem?
I think we did that before, LeSving, and you ended up leaving us for a few months 
It may be because, for reasons above, Brits actually cross borders in significant numbers because they fly abroad more 
Germany also has a significant foreign touring community but being on the mainland they fly mostly within Schengen. Most Schengen residents rarely venture outside Schengen.
The bottom line is that the % of pilots who regularly leave their own country is in the low single figures, anywhere in Europe.
I don’t think it’s just the Channel, it’s also that UK airspace and procedures are quite different from our near neighbours, but are relatively similar across mainland Europe.
It’s not a real problem, but a bit of a psychological block.
I would say mainland Europe can differ greatly between regions…
A big part of why EuroGA was started was to get people to fly more around Europe. International flight stretches the “comfort zone” of many people, but brings great rewards, both immediate and long-term.
The bottom line is that the % of pilots who regularly leave their own country is in the low single figures, anywhere in Europe.
Maybe, maybe not. I would think it’s more like Timothy mentioned. Things are more similar here. I can fly for hundreds and hundreds of NMs, and as far as flying is concerned, it’s all the same no matter which country I’m in. Just yesterday I flew to Røros to get my FCL signed for two more years . While there, some Swedes landed in a Mooney. They were most probably going further by car just across the boarder back to Sweden again. Røros being the closest airport.
Other places it could be opposite and so on. I’m sure it’s the same between Germany/Austria/Netherlands/Belgiumand for instance. I think England is rather different here. Just on this board. How often do we read about non-brits seeing boarder crossing as an issue? None as I can recall.
That’s because the UK is outside Schengen, and the other countries which are also outside Schengen have little or no GA activity.
In practice it isn’t a problem – other than narrowing down the choice of airports outside the UK.
Just looking back at my logbook, I did about ten hours solo and dual after passing my test before taking the family. That ten hours did include adding 172 and PA28 to my list on top of the 152. What I had forgotten was that my very first PIC with a passenger was not from my home club, we were renting on holiday. That was all within a couple of months of passing. We did not overnight until almost a year after I passed. It was that trip that decided me to get an IMCR. Doing 100 knots at 1000 feet purely because there was a wafer thin but solid cloud layer was not my idea of fun. We have done all sorts since and having the IMCR makes it all so much safer and reliable. We did not go abroad (except Derry to Donegal which is legally an international flight) until seven years after I passed. That was simply because my club for those years while excellent in every other way insisted on a channel check which I judged a poor use of my time and money. Once I had a shareoplane, our first foreign trip was to Poland! It is written-up on this forum. I type this from my second foreign trip, trapped at Rotterdam by storms. There will be a full report once the trip is complete. There are lots of delightful flights to be had around mainland UK.
One cross-channel gotcha that people often mention is the goldfish bowl of haze which could frighten a pure VMC pilot. I saw it on my way here on Monday, it’s not nice.
Ah, just checked and the OP is in Hungary so some of my comments above don’t really help, sorry.
Joe-fbs wrote:
goldfish bowl of haze
From my limited experience, there is a psychological boundary for UK pilots crossing the channel. Talking to a couple of flight instructors at EGLS (not sure if they were based there or visiting) a few years ago, I suggested taking students to France during PPL training, and they were shocked and even scared by this. I mean, like telling people a few hundred years ago that the earth is round. If this attitude is the same in most schools then there is a lot of inertia to fight. A massive paradigm shift for these two in question, but I suppose aviation is naturally reactionary. This is a real shame.
Capitaine wrote:
If this attitude is the same in most schools then there is a lot of inertia to fight. A massive paradigm shift for these two in question, but I suppose aviation is naturally reactionary. This is a real shame.
IMO the thing is that some instructors and probably also whole communities tend to make everything a problem even if there are none to start with. The solution to the “problem” seem invariable to be instructions of some kind. This doesn’t solve anything at all, because the main issue is a psychological barrier to extend outside the comfort zone, a barrier against venturing on your own. That barrier is made, or at least enforced, by making everything a problem. It’s a self enforcing spiral.
Flying to new (to you) places cannot be instructed, it has to be done. That’s also what we do during PPL training. It’s mandatory to plan and fly one solo nav to two new (to you) places including full stop landings. Maybe that rule isn’t enforced everywhere? I don’t know, I wouldn’t think so, it would be extremely stupid. What more training than that would anyone need? My answer is none. What’s needed isn’t instructions, or mentoring. What’s needed is gaining experience, confidence – on your own as PIC. Gradually widening the horizon in the direction of choice at a pace you can cope with, if it’s touring or bush flying or whatever. Instructions are good to learn new techniques, but to practice those techniques as a PIC can only be done as PIC (on your own).
There is an old joke in the UK that the average instructor has never been past the crease in the map and I am very sure this is true everywhere. Instruction doesn’t pay, in some countries a lot of instruction is done almost for nothing (most FIs in Europe do it for reasons other than money) and an FI cannot afford to do much (or any) GA flying on the FI income. And most PPL students want the cheapest possible PPL which will always be one where you don’t go anywhere. If you want to come out with a PPL on which you can go touring Europe, instead of it costing 10k it will cost you 20k. Same if you want a usable IR.
So we come back to mentoring being the best way forward.
It is difficult to discuss pre-PPL mentoring because of the implication that the mentor is acting as an FI. And if he is an FI or CRI there is the implication of illegal flying, because in Europe you cannot do freelance ab initio PPL instruction. It can also get political because the mentor can be seen to be reducing the business of the nearby schools. And indeed he/she is doing exactly that, because with good pre-PPL mentoring there would not be many 60 / 70 / 80 / 90 / 100hr students A bad pilot can also teach some bad stuff. Accordingly, the UK AOPA scheme specifically excluded this. But it can be very effective.
