Fuji_Abound wrote:
but then may not be able to accept a further climb.
I think you have to take a decision on what is the safest thing to do in the circumstances. But of course, with a destination like the Channel Islands if you have a attitude to low over-water flying like mine then it becomes a CAVOK project for VFR-only PPLs.
In the flying club environment I started out in, PPLs were told a lot about the dangers of bad weather and scud running. The mantra “maintain VMC at all costs” was aggressively promoted. I became distinctly unpopular because I thought for myself and came to the conclusion that if the weather was crud then “maintain MSA at all costs” was more important.
I think a bigger risk in overwater crossing for the non-IR rated PPL is not ditching but spatial disorientation. Moderate visibility or a flat cloud ceiling over land isn’t particularly challenging, but over sea (and I’ve experienced this many times) it can result in a gray sea blending into a gray sky and no visual reference at all (and in those conditions it’s easy to end up flying into a cloud deck without seeing it till you’re actually in it).
I’ve even had the milk bowl effect on a sunny day when vis was reported as 9999 on the METAR (in that case all you could see out the window was a uniform milky shade out the window, even from 5000 feet, and with little wind the sea was entirely featureless).
