Which countries don't require flight plans for VFR border crossing, and in which scenarios?

Of course you need a flightplan NL is not in the above list.

It doesn’t matter where you land or where you do not land. The only thing that matters is which countries you fly into.

OK; what’s happened to the link in post #4? Is that now dead?

Not at all. But that is about flights or portion thereof to be provided with air traffic control service, which is a different subject. Also, where air traffic control service is involved, ATC can potentially always accept, activate and close flightplans on the spot, so it depends (usually on the country in question) whether flying “with an air traffic control service” requires the pilot to file a flighplan before the flight.

But that is about flights or portion thereof to be provided with air traffic control service

Doesn’t that mean that any flight in CAS needs an ATS service? You do need a clearance, for sure.

This no-FP concession appears to be largely for low level non-radio traffic.

Doesn’t that mean that any flight in CAS needs an ATS service?

Not quite, since VFR flights in class E (controlled airspace) do not require an ATS.

This no-FP concession appears to be largely for low level non-radio traffic.

No. Altitude of flight and radio usage do not directly come into the equation. But the concession can of course be “trumped” by OTHER factors that DO require the flight be on a flightplan (IFR, night, requiring an ATS, etc.), despite being between countries which generally don’t require one.

Jan_Olieslagers wrote:

There is a basic requirement to file a flightplan for every flight that crosses FIR boundaries.

Actually national borders, not FIR boundaries.

It might be a good idea to recapitulate the situations where you need a flight plan…

SERA.4001 Submission of a flight plan
[…]
(b) A flight plan shall be submitted prior to operating:
(1) any flight or portion thereof to be provided with air traffic control service;
(2) any IFR flight within advisory airspace;
(3) any flight within or into areas, or along routes designated by the competent authority, to facilitate the provision of flight information, alerting and search and rescue services;
(4) any flight within or into areas or along routes designated by the competent authority, to facilitate coordination with appropriate military units or with air traffic services units in adjacent States in order to avoid the possible need for interception for the purpose of identification;
(5) any flight across international borders, unless otherwise prescribed by the States concerned;
(6) any flight planned to operate at night, if leaving the vicinity of an aero­drome.

The AIP will tell you about the areas and routes mentioned in (3) and (4).

No it is not. The issue with this piece of EASA not-informed-by-the-real-world rules is that, for decades, there are two completely different “flight plans”
– one done ad-hoc on the radio with the bare bones information (aircraft/type, from, to, what you want), typically for Class D and above transit and somesuch
– one submitted some time ahead using some sort of tool, ranging from phone/fax to internet portals.

So in practice, (1) and sometimes (4) are completely different from the rest, (6) is not consistently applied. With some country differences, for example the Netherlands want written VFR flight plans for class D departures and arrivals.

And long may this continue – if all EASA regs were enforced to the letter, most things would grind to a halt.

Cobalt wrote:

So in practice, (1) and sometimes (4) are completely different from the rest, (6) is not consistently applied. With some country differences, for example the Netherlands want written VFR flight plans for class D departures and arrivals.

This is indeed applied differently in practice. During PPL theory training we talked about filing flight plans for maybe 15 minutes at most. During practical training so far I have not yet submitted a FP, nor has my FI done so for any of our flights. Yet we did enter controlled air space (and thus required ATC service).

I also learned to submit basic ad hoc FP as described by Cobalt even for VFR flights were submitting a flight plan is not required at all. E.g. today I flew solo from Leer-Papenburg EDWF along the North Sea cost to Wilhelmshaven (EDWI) and back (without landing) and did not cross any CAS. But I did talk to FIS (Bremen Information 125.100) and told them “D-ERNY, Aquila A211, Solo VFR training flight along the East Frisian coast, just departed from Leer-Papenburg, Altitude 3000 ft”.
This constitutes an ad hoc FP as far as I understand.

PS: I forgot to mention my destination and was queried accordingly. Stupid me