I often hear people say that too many of the writeups here are about people flying at the edges of outer space, with an oxygen mask 
But a trip from say Biggin Hill to Le Touquet, for someone who has never done that before, is just as much of an achievement, and a lot of the people who read EuroGA (close to 1000/day) would definitely like to read it.
And if you can fly to Le Touquet you have already cracked most of what is needed in terms of operational knowledge to go anywhere in Europe.
So, if you can throw some photos on a page, and put in some text about the planning and the flight, and maybe the fun you had when you got there, do feel free to go for it!
Peter wrote:
And if you can fly to Le Touquet you have already cracked most of what is needed in terms of operational knowledge to go anywhere in Europe.
For me to fly to Le Touquet, I would already have flown across most “anywhere” in Europe 
I’ve tried a couple of times, but was discouraged by some rather negative reactions, and, even worse, almost general indifference.
Another point: myself wouldn’t do it, but I have heard some that will fly from my homefield, or near, to a field like Heinsberg or Erkelenz in Germany. This takes one through a bit of Dutch airspace, perhaps 10 NM or so. Those few miles would require one to carry an ELT and file a flight plan, which not everybody does or likes to do. So I hear this type of flight is sometimes made “in silence” – nobody is going to tell such stories on the www, they’d have to be clean daft.
The type of flying we mostly read about here can hardly be made outside the official textbook, except perhaps the odd diversion to alternate which some might consider marginal. But the closer one comes to grassroots flying, the less respect people have for textbooks, and the more they will be loth to recount their exploits.
I do remember one fellow microlighter boasting he had been circling the Mont Blanc at FL180 with his non-turbo Rotax and no oxygen either – he is not going to make a fool of himself publicly, either. Clean daft he may be, but he’s not a fool.
Jan,
Not many grassroots to be found at FL180 around Mt. Blanc I suppose
Good point, Peter, to entice more VFR reports, and thus show that much fun can be had without having an IR.
As to grassroots flying, I was invited to fly a gyrocopter the other day. My guest said: you are going to like it, but be sure not to grin or laugh, else bugs will enter your mouth. Well, they actually did, but the upside of that was that I (the proverbial Frugal Dutchman) did not have to spend any money on lunch.
I am really thinking getting into that kind of flying as well. It is so nice to really come close to being a bird, feel the wind.
Keep the stories coming, Jan..
It would be surprising if the main thing which held people back from posting VFR trip reports was illegal flying
That is perhaps too much to say. Still, going out of bounds might be one of the more interesting things about a flight that, almost by its VFR nature, is shorter and slower
What could I report of my flight last Saturday, EBZH-EBZR-EBZH, 21+21 NM or so in a straight line? That with the fine summer weather it was bumpy at 1500 AMSL over the wooded Campine area so I climbed to 3000, only to find it was just as bumpy there, plus a bit hazier?
Be positive, Jan
@Aart (and @Peter, of course): thanks for your kind words. Gyrocopters have firm advocates. Myself interested in (modest) travelling, I do not like the open cockpits or tandem seating most common among them. Interestingly, at EBZR last Saturday, I talked to a couple of guys that flew in one from north-eastern France, two and a half hours at 140-150 km/h if I remember rightly. They told me the autogyro responds much more gently to turbulence, making the ride smoother, more comfortable.
