Unfortunately if you fly at 8000ft you will get sent down to the gasco naughty boy mind modification course and next time you fly at 8000ft you will have your license “provisionally” removed 
The max on that route is 5000ft, or 5300ft if you like to live dangerously. I fly it at 5000ft. About 5 mins’ gliding time. But I go SFD DCT LFAT which is a lot longer out of glide range than the absolute shortest option.
With an IR you can do much higher but IME London Control will vector you so far south over the sea it won’t gain you anything. Anyway it is a very short flight: around 40 mins airborne time. Or, if you do get that route, you will climb and then immediately descend, and I’d argue that is more risky because the engine is at higher power over the sea. At 5000ft you will have been in stable cruise at SFD for some time. The bigger risk is coming back from LFAT because you climb out straight over the sea, although in the context of a rented/syndicate plane (unknown operating practices, etc) the plane will have had a successful flight that morning.
No idea. You may get something…
But, as I wrote, IMHO a steady 5000ft flight, established well before SFD (Eastbourne in the pic above) is safer than a balls-out climb to say FL100 and then cutting the power as much as you dare. Anecdotally engines tend to break on a power change.
And on the way back you can climb straight to FL072, for a bit.
@Airborne_Again thank you for the link, you are right.
what about the “unable due to glide range”?
You will be sent to XIDIL, if unable to will get vectored elsewhere
If you leave airspace, you get asked to freecall en-route
Honestly if one can fly IFR in LTMA why not do it at FL100-FL140? I know you could hit icing, ceiling, thunderstorms, winds…blabla but then there is no harm in crossing via Cap Griz Nez to Dover VFR at 5kft and sort out any “IFR situation” in France or UK
The glide range at +10kft looks like this…
And on the way back you can climb straight to FL072, for a bit.
Personally I hate climbing over the water. It just lengthens the amount of time I’m out of guide range.
I prefer to climb before coasting out or accept a low altitude in return for less time over the water.
There were some horrendous towering clouds in the channel yesterday, some from almost the surface (dumping rain/sleet).
I wonder if this was a loss of control in cloud either due to being VFR into IMC or a deliberate IMC into a cloud that ended up much more hostile than anticipated.
you want them to pick up the phone right now and get a heli crew strapping in by the time he calls you back
That is why I have always encouraged people flying to Le Touquet, to fly Lydd – Le Touquet and to keep on Lydd’s frequency as long as possible because SAR (based at Lydd) are always monitoring ATC there.
Before you’ve even finished your first Mayday call, they will be airborne.
I wonder if this was a loss of control in cloud
Flight 24 does seem to show the plane circulating (disorientating?) mid-channel.
What is that FR ttack based on? AdSB or MLAT?
To.me that track is suspicious, particularly tue last straight part at 110 its which is slow for an Arrow and would suggest they got out of whatever weird maneuvering they were doing.
Could well be the track was interpolated. Therefore the crashnsite could be at a different position than at the end of the ttack shown.
