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What percentage of pilots fly abroad?

It appears increasingly obvious that the % is much lower than most would think.

I just cannot imagine doing a PPL, let alone anything beyond that, just for flying around the UK (I mean fixed wing – helicopter mission profiles are very different).

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

I cannot imagine it either, but i can well understand that there’s pilots, especially the ones who are not fluent in English or who do not have a lot of travel experience in general, to not fly abroad. It’s simply too complicated for many. Italian or French VFR maps are such a disaster for the average person, the UK has their special rules. It’s really only simple to fly to the Czech Republic, Poland or Austria from Germany (no flightplan, no customs, simple maps),

I think quite often, it’s the language that preventing PPL holders from flying abroad, at least here in central Europe, where many private pilots (at least in the beginning) only get a national radio license. With only german or french radio proficiency one can not even fly to Switzerland, even if it is closer than most national destinations.

EDDS - Stuttgart

It’s really only simple to fly to the Czech Republic, Poland or Austria from Germany (no flightplan, no customs, simple maps),

No ICAO flight plan required between Germany and any of those countries?

Last Edited by Peter at 06 Mar 11:30
Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Not for VFR flights.

EDDS - Stuttgart

No, nothing, for VFR you don’t even have to call. I do call Praha Information, but that’s only for greeting them and to get a QNH … in Austria you need a FPL for the bigger airports.

Where I am based, considering only the private ownership aircraft, I would hazard a guess that something like 60% PPL’s fly abroad at least once a year. Myself I tend to go for 3 or 4 abroad, and a few more if I included Jersey zone.

On the hired aircraft front, it must be much less, though I did it a few times myself on hired aircraft. I found that other thread of the guy who flew a hired aircraft from Panshanger via Luton to Portugal absolutely fascinating. I dont know if the weather was ‘better’ back then (seems not from the rain encountered) but in the UK there can be a completely different set of weather when comparing the morning to the afternoon. Weather (particuarly winds) cause me more abandoned flights abroad than anything else, and I will be honest, when you are working Mon – Fri and your only chance to fly longer flights is either at weekends, or on a planned day off and you dont have much flexibility, it can be a bit of a chore, which I find a real shame. Of course I could ‘fix’ part of that by having a more mission capable aircraft (something with better x-wind capabilities) or I could be more bold and fly in worse weather, or make more use of alternates, but at the end of the day, it has to be about fun.

It’s really only simple to fly to the Czech Republic, Poland or Austria from Germany (no flightplan, no customs, simple maps)

in Austria you need a FPL for the bigger airports

So… that means one does have to read the other country’s AIP, or whatever, to find out whether a FPL is required or not. By the time one has logged into EAD, or whatever, and read the entire entry (because it could be anywhere in the small print) one could have knocked up a flight plan and filed it (a VFR FPL is almost never rejected), got the wx, got the notams, and be on the way to the airport

So what is really stopping people?

I am sure the language issue is a big one. The people I normally bump into on my longer trips come from countries where English is either the main language (i.e. south east UK ) or the country has a long history of it being a popular comfortable 2nd language. I find the same in my business: customers from those countries buy direct readily, whereas the others almost never buy direct so one needs a local distributor there.

Last Edited by Peter at 06 Mar 12:43
Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

With only german or french radio proficiency one can not even fly to Switzerland

Who told you that?

You may not land in Zürich or Geneva, but pretty much every other airfield is dual language, En/Ge in the east, En/Fr in the west. Same goes for Info. Granted, you’ll likely be the only one, but you’ll be accomodated. And obviously this is VFR only.

LSZK, Switzerland

It appears increasingly obvious that the % is much lower than most would think.
I just cannot imagine doing a PPL, let alone anything beyond that, just for flying around the UK (I mean fixed wing – helicopter mission profiles are very different).

I recently had a chat with some younger guys who are aiming to be Ryan pilots, like most other folks in that age who want to do this for a living. They had acquired their CPL, IR, ME and MCC ratings but had never flown outside Sweden (a trip to Germany is just 45 minutes away, Denmark even less). I was quite surprised, the number of hours apparently tells very little about their actual “going places” experience.

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