I guess there is a big difference between different regions in Germany.
I know a few Bavarian pilots who fly to some other airfield for their Frühschoppen (Some kind of brunch with only beer. LOL). Then fly back home in the evening.
They light a BBQ with AVGAS. You could see the initial black smoke for miles and it was a sign to us student pilots to head back to the airfield to eat tea.
How would you describe a german pilot? ;-)
but my suspission would be that it’s more of a languange thing. As soon as they cross a border, they need to be able to speak another language apart from French. Given that the majority of the pilot population is 50+, I suspect a large percentage of them don’t speak anyting other than French.
If I had to be able to speak French or German to be able to leave Ireland, I’d probably never fly out of the country either ;)
I was thinking of why there is so apparently little long distance flying within France.
It’s a big enough country (as big as the bit of the UK where there is actually much GA activity) and there is plenty of scenery – especially in the south. (French aeroclub males would argue the scenery is actually good everywhere in France 
) And the Robins, which are everywhere, have plenty of range.
It could be money, but are the French pilots so poor?
It could be that GA in France is more of a social thing… fly 50nm down the road, have some food and wine with another club…? Whereas British pilots tend to be deadly serious: yellow jackets on at dawn, fly with map+compass (the proper WW2 way), land at some god forsaken airfield in the middle of back of beyond, and eat a burger and chips in the cafe there. A caricature, I know, but how far off?
It seem to me that for VFR flying you need some local knowledge to know what is / and what is not possible regarding crossing of restricted / controlled airspace.
For example: When you enter Belgium airspace at a flight level and ask to cross the country via controlled airspace, your request will most likely be granted.
If you do the same for The Netherlands they will tell you to descent and stay below controlled airspace.
Crossing the Rotterdam CTR will always be granted.
Crossing the Amsterdam (Schiphol) CTR will only be allowed if you have filed a FPL and ATC is in a good mood.
Being proficient on the radio seem to help in getting clearances in CAS.
Long distance VFR flying in Europe requires a lot of planning and can be quite demanding.
It can be done, but you need to be quite determined and flexible. Maybe only 20% of the VFR pilots I know do long trips. Most never fly further than 100NM around their home base.
Achim,
The ZRH controllers don’t even allow a flight over downtown Zurich even though there is zero movement in their control zone in that area.
If you know how to ask you almost always can do it. Best variant is to come from the South (lake of Zürich) to Sierra point and then fly via W1 and W westbound or vice versa. The other variant is to try via E-E1-E2 and then W2, W1, S, but that is going directly over the airport and often denied.
As for the rest, there is nothing to add to “what next” ‘s post. Whoever is at fault in Zürich is NOT the ATCO’s who do a great job. But the powers that are around deny them most flexibility and things which are in their competence but politically unsound.
And yes, some of those people indeed have blood on their hands, not only in ZRH. There were similar cases in Altenrhein before the ILS got comissioned there.
The ZRH controllers don’t even allow a flight over downtown Zurich …
Everything in Zürich is about noise abatement. They have their own noise sensitive and very influential clientele along the shores of Zürichsee and, as if that was not enough, half of southwestern Germany fighting against their airport (regarding Zürich airport I am truly ashamed for my fellow countrypeople). The airport is in the worst possible situation, bounded at three sides by either terrain or the noise mafia. Traffic flow into and out of Zürich is not controlled by factors of common sense like wind direction or flight safety, but by noise regulations. During the last two weeks I have been to Zürich three times at different times of the day. The wind was always light southwesterly, yet I landed on a different runway every time and took off from yet another one. Pure madness that has already claimed victims in the past (Crossair 3597). ATC in Zürich have no liberty at all, they are bound by these insane regulations and have to report even the slightest transgression. The controllers are absolutely not to blame in this case.
You may sometimes be able to do it if you ask for a transit along the VFR routes (E or W in and S out).
They want you to first call info and ask for the transit. But IMO this almost assures denial, you have better chances if you directly ask Tower.
The ZRH controllers don’t even allow a flight over downtown Zurich even though there is zero movement in their control zone in that area. I tried it twice and got denied twice. Very narrow minded ATC in my experience although highly professional.
Alexis,
As I said, from my experience they are not ATCO’s most of the time. But the ATCO s are often forced into such constraints that their liberty to do their job as they would be capable of and the leeway they have is severely restricted. Either by the existing rules or by experience of what happened to people who did show initiative and tried to push these limits. That is why we have the situation as it is. Frankly, i would not like to be in their place, while I’d love to be an ATCO in places like JFK.
