Flying yourself to France - You need to know this 

Great video as ever John. Thanks again for your humble approach to enhancing GA. In the last couple of days I had my first use of GAR since the new legislation. It was interesting on the return... Yesterday I flew back from LFAT, with a flight plan and GAR submitted as per instruction for return to EGBE (Coventry). I put Lydd and Lashenden down as divert options. I ended up diverting to Lydd and on arrival, their reception phoned ATC to cancel my flight plan and called customs. Customs duly turned up to inform me that they were working out the new rules and this was the first time they had to handle a divert case since the new rules came into force. The customs officers were polite and professional to deal with, but phoned supervisors for advice on how to handle. They then informed me that I should have phoned the Emergency GAR telephone number prior to diverting. Make of that what you will , as I can't imagine digging out a phone number and trying to call them when scudding around low level and positioning for an unplanned rejoin! As it was, on this occasion, the lead customs officer explained that he wouldn't be applying civil penalties (wtf!) as he accepted my explanation of inclement weather and having to divert for flight safety reasons. On reading the GAR instructions it doesn't say that you MUST call the emergency GAR phone number in the event of a diversion, but you CAN call it. I think the truth is the Customs are still working out this unnecessary piece of bureaucracy, but as pilots we can't go wrong by calling the Emergency GAR phone number immediately after landing, especially in the event of a divert.I believe customs needs to better understand the practical realities faced by general aviation, particularly regarding weather conditions. The current approach could lead to dangerous decisions in the air, driven by the fear of potential legal consequences rather than safety considerations.

Great video. What a Brexit bonus faff about. Talking about taking a system and breaking it 🙄 Bumped into you at the Cirrus stand in Friedrichshafen and was looking forward to the quickest of chats…unfortunately I had to take a call. Another time perhaps! Hope you had a successful show! Happy landings!

I worked 14 years in Lille ATC unit, great memories and such a pleasure having you UK folks coming over. LFAT was hectic sometimes due to the insane number of aircraft flying in. Le Touquet restaurants are very popular I heard ;) , working on sunny week-ends could be quite interesting ! Thanks for the video, that hit a special nostalgic spot for me ! Fly safe !

Thanks for the guide Jon 👍😊

Great video, I enjoyed the real time flight in the background :)

Great journey, good advice for cross-border travel and recent changes (thank you), and what a lovely family, hope the trip was amazing (I guess I'll find out when part 2 lands!)

Useful video! I can now see they included the clarification "Given name If you have a middle name, you must include it here." but only for the reponsible person.

Looks like a fun trip! ❤ The paperwork reminds me of flying across the Canada-U.S. border. It looks intimidating at first. Then you actually do it and you wonder what all the fuss was about. The U.S. web site (eAPIS) is horrible. Flying to Canada you phone in your Customs declaration.

lovely video well done guys

When you come back just use a small dinghy, no customs no paper work or passport no flight plan etc.

Thank you for your thorough explanation!

Great video John. I first did this as an FI over 20 years ago in the days of faxes! We did several trips to Lognes, some as part of the students' PPL course. I put the fuel I need + diversion + 10%, I don't just fill it up to the max. Went to Ostend many times as well, another great destination.

Great video guys, nice little trip!

Very useful as I plan to do my first channel crossing at some point when the weather allows!

Thank you for the video! I will be flying from Calais to Goodwood next week and your video confirms the bureaucratic procedures we need to follow.

Great Vid. I have not been there for about five years, customs were so horrible to me and my daughter last time when they did not get a copy of my Gar forwared to them, although i had a copy in my hand with fax code printed on it!

Thankyou xx

What a bureaucratic nightmare! Looking forward to part 2

God I taxi past your plane most weekends at Redhill just found your channel I’m normally in VL. Nice videos keep it up

Thanks for the video. Very informative. L2K is my local airfield.

So happy the Brits got their sovereignty back ;-) #brexit

Just watched it again and saw the takeoff. Thank the lord for good maths.. you did use up that runway.

Great job explaining this. Personally I wouldn’t fly to one of the PNR destinations (many) without getting a positive response from the Douane email. Sometimes it does take a little chasing (so doing at least the day before is a good idea). LFAT is a good option for hassle free clearance if heading in that direction, as is EBOS if going further east.

Thanks for the video Jon, I’ve never been to Le Touquet, always done customs at Calais, and Lognes is no ULM so won’t be going there either 😢 The new s-GAR is a right faf. My airfield doesn’t have an ICAO code and when I enter the lat & long that skydemon (or onlinegar) shows, it gets changed to something different 🤷‍♂️. No ability to save favourite airfields either. Even when playing around with a draft GAR you get warnings of a £10k fine as the flight date is more than 48 hours away. Do hope skydemon comes back with an integrated solution soon.

Smashing video I’ve yet to try a channel crossing did you have a life raft on board ?

Really helpful video - thanks so much..! Wondering if there’s any advantage to paying for and using OnlineGAR instead of the new Govt system..?

This video has come at a perfect time as I'm planning my first ever trip from Redhill to the continent. Look forward to this ridiculous over complication. The flying will be the easy bit 😂

It would seem Google Maps is incorrect, since it shows runways 08L/26R (arrival) and 08R/26L (departure) both on grass at EGKR. In the video, you took off from runway 24, hard runway, and there was no L or R. As I have a French IP address though, it might not look the same when you check Maps in the UK. I'll try that in my simulator, it looks like a fun short flight.

Informative as ever Jon, what a shame it has come to this though, will certainly put some off from taking the plunge and heading across the channel

Have you had the aircraft battery cable SB done ? The engine start seemed a little slow.

Not a bad ground speed there John! Thanks for sharing, but the paperwork sucks, overly complicated for what most pilots experience as a single day visit.

I’m guessing the answer is fairly obvious here, but, assuming if landing purely for customs and go (5 mins as you say), that you still have to pay a landing fee for the inbound service etc?

Why does the cynic in me think it's easier by rubber dinghy?

Lognes is pronounced “Lon-yuh” (but the “yuh” bit is pretty discrete)

I'm French and I live in Manchester and start my ppl at lognes! Great memories! Brexit is the worst thing happen to the uk!

Wonder is it any easier flying from the UK to France if you're an Irish passport holder?

Does this still apply if you’re flying to Rwanda?

Is it correct if you hold a lapl licence you cannot fly out of the UK brexit rules

But blue passports ...

hura hura for brexit, wat a briliant idea. seriously.

498 Metres is actually 1,633 feet. I have always used the in my head conversion of 3 to 1 so your call of 1,100 feet rang out as just oops

Quite surprised that European aviation ATC talks in miles (11 miles north of Le Touquet) although I did appreciate most countries, apart from Russia communicate height in feet. 😎😇

By the end of the year you'll need a biometric scan and have your fingerprints taken as well.

Hope the 52% are enjoying their newfound 'control', because I'm certainly not.

Brexit, the crap that keeps on giving. 😡

Wait wait -- did you just say "buy some flight plan credits?" You need to _pay_ to file flight plans?!

excellent....glad Brexit Britain can still fly to the EU. Bienvenue en France... i thing you dont pronounce the G in Longnes... so maybe Lon-ney....hmmm.

Brexit keeps bringing all those sunlit uplands and has not at all ended up in a bureaucratic nightmare. On a positive note this is what GA is all about. Adventure and travel. I would love to be doing this myself.

Brexit means Brexit 😭😭

It was so much easier before Brexit 😐

Brexit scoring goals again, as it will continue to do forever. What a monumentally stupid act of self harm.

For the next video, you ll speak all in french, isn't?🤣

Great, there is no escape from UK Prison Island. Apart from that, all this crap we need to go through to go to Europe now, bio-metric scans, extra profiling and restrictive visas...Yet hundreds of dingy divers get ushered right into the UK and get given hotels every single day. There is something really really wrong here. I used to love France and Europe in general. Now I can't be bothered with any of it. Sad to be honest.

Brits going to the EU by any mode of transport is likely to be a torturous experience and possibly not worth the effort. The time to prepare, bureaucracy, long queues, security checks, the costs and ultimately not being welcome in Europe, all negate any point in going there. After Brexit, the EU hates us as much as we appear to hate them (not me, I voted remain and still consider my self a European). I feel like I am in exile, held in the UK against my will, like being a guest of Kim Jong Un in North Korea or No 6 in the Village. I am not a number !

All this for the law abiding. But anyone can get in a dingy on the French coast and come here for free accommodation and 3 square meals. This country is truly mad.