My last trip out of the UK was the great one to Aosta in Oct 2020. While it is not illegal to do this, you would get hit by the quarantine at both ends, and doing that at the far end makes foreign trips totally impractical. So I am doing UK-to-UK ones, but there is no limit on how far out one can go. I am still planning this but at ~950nm it is a long way and needs very light winds and good wx, and I have already cancelled three attempts.
So yesterday I did a much shorter version – to the lovely island of Alderney EGJA.
Previous contacts with the police indicated they want to see a GAR form and the PHE form. Legally this is bunk but one doesn’t want to provoke them, so I filed a EGKA-EGKA GAR which I guess must have raised eyebrows but nobody phoned to query it… the PHE form could not be filed because the govt website is broken and the email link they send you just produces an error message. Anyway the plan was to not go below 1000ft because they have a particularly energetic mutant version of the virus on these islands and it can jump a long way!
So I filed EGKA GWC KATHY ORIST ALD ORIST KATHY GWC EGKA at 5000ft and of course it validated via Eurocontrol 
It is in Class G except the Jersey zone and I phoned them up and asked if they authorise traffic in there; they said Yes. So while the islands are firmly shut (especially Alderney which has been for 1 year now) you can fly into the airspace. Well, of course you should be able to, but one never knows how anal somebody might be…
Unfortunately because Alderney ATC were not there, I was not allowed to fly the approach… Jersey required “now below 2000ft”, so I got some pics from 2100ft:
The corner of France, Cap de la Hague, is just visible in the haze
and this is Alderney. Apologies for the window reflections!
Nobody on the beach, but it wasn’t exactly warm
The “main town”
The harbour and its long wall
The Bray hotel
No police were waiting for me on return, which is good news. They see all flight plans (and Jersey required a flight plan)…
During the flight I programmed a user waypoint, for the big one 
Lovely pictures as always, not many people on the beach !
Peter wrote:
I phoned them up and asked if they authorise traffic in there; they said Yes
What does that even mean
PS: they would not say NO unless dumb enough to lose their utility or jobs, but who knows these days !
Peter wrote:
During the flight I programmed a user waypoint, for the big one
Kathy Jungfrau
I am told “Jungfrau” means “virgin” and with the big naval dockyard at Portsmouth you can be fairly sure there are no virgins anywhere near KATHY
Even from 2,100 Alderney does look inviting
Not sure if I’d want to be trapped there for a year though
I would not want to be trapped in a hotel room anywhere for 2 weeks. I think a lot of people would go seriously crazy. It’s not surprising these quarantine hotels allow “socialisation” inside, which defeats the point. As for living on Alderney, it depends on whether you can live a simple life. It would drive me crazy too… one local complained to me (not on this trip; I should add) how backwardly run the island is. Well there are 600 bunkers to explore first
Here’s a video. Yes, don’t tell me, I need to expand my collection of audio tracks
Little bit further than Alderney but a former British Island:
Peter, I like Antonín Dvořák and his symphony 9. It matches a flight over Alderney and the sea at 2000ft. For a low level terrain following ride through canyons I recommend Beethoven’s symphony no. 9 or perhaps some heavy metal for the younger among us.
