Well the “parental unit” help desk wanted me to ask the airport to file my flight plan…
They have certain “individuals” in there who do this kind of stuff. Every once in a while they have to send one of these “individuals” for “re-education”. I once got a very short treatment by one of these (at an airport in Italy where “nobody” spoke English so it happened at a bad time) and after I kicked up a huge fuss they apologised on some UK forum.
However my understanding of the ICAO obligations is that the departure airport ARO is supposed to offer this facility, and this enables every other agency to wash their hands of it if they want to. Hence the rise of electronic filing, etc, etc…
I’m a bit frustrated about GARs.
Yesterday I flew in from Germany. Tried AOPA website twice. It did not send, not after 2, 5 or 10 mins. Just stuck.
Fax did not answer at all.
I sent an email and hoped it was received and processed.
It is a big mess. I spend nearly an hour on GAR. This needs to be sorted.
The GAR doesn’t need sorting, it needs abolishing. And the UK needs to join the Schengen agreement.
Politically, not much chance of that happening, is there? It’s a hot potato, been for a number of years, and will remain so for a long time. There is even a distinct possibility that the UK will vote to leave the EU. I don’t think it actually will (people will back off at the last moment) but it’s going to be awfully close.
But if the email facility works, and works as suggested above for the CTA (Special Branch) also, I think that’s not bad. I have emailed countless GARs and have never got into trouble over it. I have had much more trouble with Special Branch and their crappy fax facilities where sometimes nobody bothered to put paper into their fax machine.
My view (not a lawyer) is that if you CC the email to yourself, or maybe another person, a prosecution must fail because the law requires a notification, not permission, and you can prove that you despatched the notification. Which is not saying you won’t get an aggressive interview. Any ambiguity in law works in favour of the defendant, and the law doesn’t say you must get a receipt. I know the police are always trying to construct it as a “permission” (by telephoning you with a “permission to fly” number) but that is not what the law says. In most other areas of “legal life” that I know of, a proof of despatch of a document is a proof of delivery. Maybe not if serving an eviction notice on somebody and stuff like that, but e.g. when the police mail a speeding ticket to you, that is itself a proof of service. Nowadays they just post them 1st class. In the old days they sent it Recorded Delivery which is not tracked and your neighbour’s dog can sign for it…
My view (not a lawyer) is that if you CC the email to yourself, or maybe another person, a prosecution must fail because the law requires a notification,
Or even better if you own the mail server, pull the log entry which shows their SMTP server accepting the message.
The GAR doesn’t need sorting, it needs abolishing. And the UK needs to join the Schengen agreement.
I totally agree, but I fear the UK (or the remaining part, after the Scottish referendum) will leave the EU.
BUT if they abolish the GAR, UK pilots will lose the present ability to fly abroad from any strip.
They have just lost that ability for non EU flights (including the Channel Islands).
Only if the UK joined Schengen could that come back, but the UK is not going to join Schengen.
If the GAR was abolished (and nothing else happened) then the UK would be like the rest of the world where you can fly internationally only from Ports of Entry which would be a right pain in the ****. Look at the mess in France. And even e.g. Bergerac LFBE which probably has a non-Schengen flight every single day requires 24hrs PNR for Customs.
So be careful what you wish for.
The loss of non EU destinations (in the main part of Europe, just the CI, plus Norway and Switzerland) shows what can happen very easily!
The GAR system is actually very very good. We just need a robust and easy to use means of sending in the form. The Onlinegar site is very good, but isn’t free.
Or even better if you own the mail server, pull the log entry which shows their SMTP server accepting the message.
Would that count as evidence, given that you own the server? I know a man who lives near a “problem housing estate” and his car was repeatedly vandalised. He set up video cameras and collected video evidence clearly identifying the kids who were doing it. The police told him (maybe wrongly?) that his videos were completely worthless. According to them, you have to employ a 3rd party (generally a private detective) to make the videos.
Would that count as evidence, given that you own the server?
It’s got to be better than CCing yourself which can also be deemed not a 3rd party. There will be a 3rd party log – the recipient’s! If the police’s ISP isn’t keeping mail logs for however many years it is now they are breaking the law, so they will have the logs and the sysadmin should be able to find the message id with relative ease.
For example a log line might look like this on the sending host:
Jul 2 12:59:19 vexed4 postfix/qmgr8303: E516D1CA003: from=<[email protected]>, size=633, nrcpt=1 (queue active)
… some spam/antivirus stuff…
Jul 2 12:59:20 vexed4 postfix/smtp6761: E516D1CA003: to=<[email protected]>, relay=example-com.mail.protection.outlook.com[213.199.154.87]:25, delay=1.1, delays=0.04/0.02/0.23/0.76, dsn=2.6.0, status=sent (250 2.6.0 <[email protected]> [InternalId=52926881996069, Hostname=DB3FFO11HUB012.protection.gbl] Queued mail for delivery)
which shows a number that can be referenced both on the sending (grep E516D1CA003 /var/log/mail.log on my side) side and on the receiving (finding 52926881996069 or perhaps [email protected] on the recipient’s end) since pertinent data about what the recipient SMTP gateway did with it exists in my log too – much of that log entry concerns itself with what the receiving SMTP server told my server (that the message was accepted successfully and a bunch of information about exactly what host queued it and a message id that it will recognise was)
GAR for an alternate airport
I am planning on flying directly from Ireland to Jersey. One of my weather alternates will be Exeter. What is the position with the GAR. My plan is not to land in the UK at all. I will only go there is the weather in Jersey or my other alternate (In France) is an issue. The decision to divert to Exeter will only be made enroute. If I file a GAR on the basis that I might go to Exeter I may be wasting a lot of people’s time. Is it sufficient to file a GAR on arrival in Exeter instead.
Strictly speaking no. You can’t arrive anywhere in the UK without a GAR anymore. But they are generally sensible people. If you are forced to divert, then do so, and on arrival make contact with Border Force and tell them what happened.
Don’t die in order not to break the rules ;)
But likewise, I wouldn’t take off thinking that you’ll go have a look, but most likely you’ll end up in Exeter. If you should be expecting to make your destination before departure, but if that changes, then so be it.
