Given that our original flight plan was to Le Touquet with Lydd and Connington as alternates, and given that we did not land at Lydd, should we have filed an airborne flightplan for the return to the UK?
You need a flight plan to cross a national frontier, in either direction.
There are some exceptions in Europe, which I don't recall (maybe Germany to Austria, or something like that, where there is a special deal?).
How this applies if you never landed in the other country, is a really good question!
Should we have made an effort to close our flight plan to avoid any possibility of SAR in France (Le Touquet Tower was closed; Lille knew our intentions), so I saw this as unnecessary.
I have forgotten to close two flight plans to France recently, and it did trigger overdue action, but they just do the obvious thing (phone up somebody at the airport; the night security guard if necessary) and ask if the plane is parked there.
In your case (not landing) I would bet that Lille closed your FP for you. They are not stupid, and loads of Brits fly approaches in France.
The original GAR form was for a return landing at Bourn, but we actually went to Connington. Should I have contacted NCU on arrival? This is the point I am most concerned about.
I think that if they wanted to speak to you they would have paid a visit 
Yesterday I chatted to a "GAR team" (border force) policeman who said they see the flight plans and try to pair them up with filed GARs, and if there is a mismatch they look into it closer, and possibly visit the aircraft after landing.
I have done a few diversions (to UK airports) but have never been visited. No idea why.
Could be because none were "farm strips".
Diversions have historically been popular for drug traffic (not that I would know) because the pilot can divert on a whim, and will be on the ground and unloaded long before than the police can meet him. Hence they are more likely to meet you up if you diverted. However I think only a mug would file a flight plan for that, anyway. A smuggler would go field to field, in a microlight.
Here in Sussex there are over 80 airfields (mostly farm strips) and the police use all kinds of rules to decide which ones to visit.
I wouldn't worry about it!
I would normally file two plans, one outbound and the second inbound, but I didn't do the paperwork for this particular flight.
I wasn't overly concerned about the flightplan, as it did cover flying to Connington as the alternate. I was concerned about SB and customs, though, as not turning up at the nominated airfield and diverting twice might be considered worthy of further investigation. So I spoke to my local SB policemen and ending up sending a short email of explanation to both SB and the NCU.
Thanks for your comments.
Alan.
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AFAIK, special branch has nothing to do with flights from England to France or vice versa...
Thinking about this properly... why do you need a GAR when not landing abroad?
I can see that the police (Border Force, officially) will then see a flight plan with no GAR and might get interested, but presumably one can put a remark on the flight plan about not landing?
I have done flights within the CTA before for the purpose of doing approaches and IFR procedures at different airfields and I don't bother with a GAR unless I am planning to land. If I have to divert then so be it, the reason will be important enough that the paperwork shouldn't matter.
I normally file a flight plan for these trips (even those not technically requiring it) and I would always put for example, going from Prestwick to Belfast Aldergrove for approaches and then returning. Route: DCT BLACA DCT BEL DCT BLACA DCT and I would put RMK/Approaches at EGAA. This might be lost information that is never read but if anyone gets curious and wants to look then the info is somewhere.
Just an update...
I have been filing the normal (Customs/Immigration) GAR up to now using the email address, and had no trouble, but doing a trip to Ireland tomorrow one has had to fax the GAR to the police.
I have often found the fax numbers provided on the form to be duff, but this time the ones for both Sussex and Kent (where I will be departing from) are duff.
It looks like the police have just chucked out their fax machines, or nobody is bothering to put any paper in...
So one has to use the online form for this. There are two options listed here.
It is clunky (a Silverlight app) but it kind of works....
The email confirmation they talk about didn't arrive... but I have done a screenshot of the receipt and printed that off.
Yes, all in all, the entire process is still very much a mess. Not really for a simple flight from, say, France to mainland UK, but for those flights involving NI, RoI, IoM and the CI.
The online GAR is an attempt to simplify the adressing and sending challenges, but the app is still, to put it mildly, very far from perfect....
Plus Weston EIWT need their own one also.
I emailed plus faxed as specified but they didn't get it, so I emailed them a PDF of the UK GAR form and they got that OK.
None of this stuff is hard but they don't teach it in the PPL, so no wonder almost nobody goes anywhere
I may be going to Ireland on Sunday - have not been by GA before.
Does emailing to the NCU take care of the special branch requirement for flights to/from Ireland, or is there someone else I need to send it to?
No; for the CTA (Ireland, IOM, CI) you need to get the GAR to Special Branch, and the NCU email doesn't do that.
You have to either fax it to the number shown on the GAR form for the relevant area (and a lot of those fax numbers don't work) or use the online facility which I linked to higher up.
I suggest you go for the online version. It is clunky and makes it difficult to manage repetitive passenger details etc, but it seems to work.
You are also likely to need to send a copy of the GAR (or the equivalent information) to the airport in Ireland. I am going to Weston and they want all that for themselves too (see my link to their web page). The easiest thing is to send them the UK GAR form.
