I don’t think this has anything to do with charts!
From a UK-centric position, most of the people I know who haven’t been abroad yet haven’t done so for a combination of reasons, but most often that they are nervous about the water crossing and have a fear of the unknown. The other group would be renters I guess – it must be difficult to schedule a nice relaxed weekend away when you can only hire by the hour.
Unless I’m flying somewhere for a reason such as attending a meeting or an event, all my trips so far have been to France. I’ve never seen the point in the £200 burger run.
Each to their own of course as ‘all flying is good flying’, but there are some people who repeatedly keep going back and forth between the same small handful of airfields. This is something which I just can’t get my head around. You have the most flexible and capable form of transport there is, yet you fly from one crappy airfield to another to eat an awful bacon sandwich and have an instant coffee, then fly back again.
Time, money and lack of a small jet. Sweden is easy, but is hardly “abroad” in the right sense of the word for me. Any other country requires hours and hours of flying with a Cub. Besides, there are so many places and events in my own country (and Sweden) I haven’t been to, and these are higher on the list. With a small jet, the situation would be different, but the lack of a jet does not look to be going away anytime soon. 
There was another thread here about flying in Scotland. My thoughts when I saw all those nice pictures where; Why would Brits fly abroad ?
There was another thread here about flying in Scotland. My thoughts when I saw all those nice pictures where; Why would Brits fly abroad ?
Because for most of them, “abroad” is closer than Scotland!
Warmth?
To add my opinion, I think different VFR rules are also an issue. I am yet to find a good source which contains a summary what you have to take care about, starting from transponder requirements and ending with different airspace structures. To be absolutely legal you have to download (or most often) buy and study the AIP of the country (or countries) you want to cross and visit which is a nightmare. Every time I ask more experienced pilots how to go to a country different from Switzerland and Germany I get the same answer: IFR! And there are a lot of people who don’t have IR which is a big blocker.
And I can confirm the issues the others have mentioned: club regulations, no availability, money. I’ve always wanted to fly to France or Bulgaria for a couple of weeks but even if I get a plane for that time I would have to pay thousands even if not flying every day. That’s not an option for most people, including me.
I think charts are an unpleasant thing (especially getting a paper version to be sure in case of your iPad dies) but it’s not a stopper.
Warmth?
Here is a snapshot of my flying up to about 7 years ago (I ought to update it) and there is no prize for guessing what motivates me
But nowadays it increasingly comes down to flying with nice people and meeting nice people when I get there. And nice people to fly with are very hard to find – for any trip other than totally trivial like Shoreham to Le Touquet. As I wrote before on another thread, most men kill themselves to make money and their “filofax” is packed for months ahead, and flying with women is problematic if you already have one at home 
But one has to fly with nice people because you have to get on with them in the plane and then you have to hang out with them when you get there.
Funnily enough my GF has said that she would fly with me more if I got a Cirrus – purely because of the parachute!
I am yet to find a good source which contains a summary what you have to take care about, starting from transponder requirements and ending with different airspace structures.
Yes – that’s really strange, isn’t it?
For the € millions which EASA blow away on producing internal reports on GA (I have some hilarious stuff which I can’t publish because it might identify the source) they could spend a bit of time producing a nice VFR-flying summary of requirements, and keep it updated.
What the internet generally and EASA specifically has done is increased the volume of “99% irrelevant but which 99%?” crap which gets published, and which literally only about 10 people in a country the size of the UK can read and understand.
There are two books which focus on flying VFR across borders in Europe.
One is called “Cross border information – VFR around Germany” and was published by DFS, the German ATC company. It contains excerpts from various AIPs (Belgium, France, Denmark, Austria, the Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, Czech Republic) and, like the AIPs, has the texts both in German and English next to each other so it would be of use to non-German speakers as well. It focusses by country on topics like Mandatory Flight plan filing, airspace structure, VFR-rules, minimum heights, altimeter and transponder settings etc. I am not sure whether this one is still in print and up-to-date as I could not find it any longer at the relevant pilot supplies stores.
The second one is “Cross border information – VFR ins Ausland” by a lady named Heike Schweigert. Available e.g. here Link
I have the slight suspicion that this one might be the successor to the book I mentioned first. It also provides the relevant information on a country-by-country basis (for 22 European countries) but it seems to have the distinct disadvantage in that it has the text in German only.
I agree with @TheAvenger …
a very good example are rules to choose a FL :
but before that, there’s
Then there’s the obvious time and money availability.
Even my training for the ultralight license included both an introduction to the AIP, including mention of its importance and its limitations, and quite some time spent on filing flight plans. I am sure these are two of the fields where practice varies a lot from one country to another.
To be absolutely legal you have to download (or most often) buy and study the AIP of the country (or countries) you want to cross and visit which is a nightmare.
It’s simple: relax and just fly. It’s not difficult in real life. I’ve never studied any AIP in my VFR days, just went ahead. I once tried to plan a route through France and concluded that it was impossible so I just went and surprise surprise, FIS guided me to my destination. Had I prepared a route, it would have been a complete waste of time. I flew pretty much all across Europe in my VFR days without much preparation. However, from day one I never flew anywhere non trivial without being in contact with FIS all the time.
