The Special Branch in North Wales have a policy of visiting EVERY SINGLE flight to/from abroad. The airport will report if they get a flight to/from abroad. So if you haven’t filed your GAR, then there will be hassle. Presumably the airport doesn’t want the hassle, and hence they want to do the paperwork for you so that they know it’s done. But then they charge for the privlidge.
Sure, that will be the reason. But it’s still totally unacceptable.
I agree; avoid landing in Wales before going to Eire.
Having sent an e mail asking the IOM SB if he knew about this new site I got a reply from the SB constable saying he has been in discussion with John Murray but his actual quote was:
“The IOM haven’t bought into it yet as I believe there may be a cost implication.
I’m all for it as it is an easy one stop reference point"
So, Carl, confirm you won’t charge them and they are on side.
Sorry I disappeared for a while – I’ve been pretty Busy preparing for launch and hosting various meetings with the Home Office.
I’ll respond to a few points at once.
Firstly, Peter, saying that we cannot guarantee delivery to any airport. I think we could do this – provided that the airport click a link to confirm receipt, or we have an agreement that an automatic receipt serial number is issued, then i think we can provide a legal guarantee. This is how it works with the border force – our receipt number, issued by them, is legally secure. It’s early days, and we’re really just starting discussions with the appropriate authorities.
STOLman – i have no personal experience, but from what I have heard the airports in CI and IOM are demanding a GAR (GENDEC or whatever they call it) and appear to be entitled to do so.
We are building a technically solid and water tight solution – we’re not happy with just emailing them from the system. Any setup we do must be 100% water tight, issue receipts, and ensure that email isn’t used for private information transmission.
And STOLman – yes John Murray is dealing with the discussions with the IOM, he’s the most connected and hopefully can broker something. Nobody’s discussed costs, and even if we had it would not be appropriate to discuss on a public forum, but cost is certainly not an issue at this stage- it’s just early days in a discussion. I cannot confirm that we will set up something for free, this is a business and it has to pay its way – but we’re not mercenary and i’m sure can find an ‘everybody wins’ agreement.
Oops – i forgot to post the big announcement…..
Here the announcement everyone’s been waiting for: SkyDemon integration is now confirmed, and all SkyDemon personal subscribers will be able to submit unlimited GARs for free from within SkyDemon itself, seamlessly alongside their VFR flightplans. The GAR forms are pre-populated with route information, requiring only passenger information to be added before filing. The passenger information is saved and encrypted securely to make filing subsequent GARs easier, just like when the standalone website is used.
For foreign stuff Carl, would be more interesting if integrated with RR.
Jason – we’re already on the case :)
Here’s a screenshot of SkyDemon on Android.
We’ve made contact with RR and we’ll see if they’re up for it.
New feature announcement. For any journey from or to the Isle of Man, you can download a IOM GAR Form fully filled in.
To use this you need to submit a GAR form, and following submission access the ‘download’ button. From here you can access UK and IOM GAR form downloads.
To achieve this we have had to add “Reason for Journey” onto the GAR and “Place of Birth” on the passenger. Both are optional fields, but if you use this feature you’ll wan to fill them in.
Well done Carl. Now this is becoming practically useful. Forgive me for asking some stupid questions in order to understand exactly what is happening here.
I sent off a test GAR. This gave me access to the download button and there I can clearly see the UK and IOM GAR forms all nicely filled out.
Are you saying at the time of submission that the UK form goes to the appropriate place in the UK and the Manx form goes to the IOM SB. Is it automatic?
Another point, I still cannot input my point of Departure, Garey Airstrip. It says there should be a drop down box to set it up but I cannot find that.
