Ok I see, yes Govt website or OnlineGAR/SkyDemon do get you an acknowledgment with reference number…funnily enough, on the ground, when UKBF turns up, a copy of emailed .xlsx file to NCU seems to be the gold standard when it come “to proof” of lost forms, way better than the reference number: I know this when Govt website failed to send the forms few years ago (they did send “excuse us for lost forms” cc’ing, not bcc’ing, every pilot email in UKSE before sending another email “excuse us for data leaks” and third email “please delete”)
The most “solid” way to file a UK GAR is OnlineGAR which has a proper secure server and gets the ack reference number from UK police (BF).
I don’t know about currently but when EuroGA was working with the Autorouter (I was part-admin on the AR), the AR was emailing GARs to the UK police. It also emailed the Eurocontrol tracking link so they could see if/when you were on your way. Apparently they were very happy with this.
I do not use the AR for GARs, for privacy reasons. Whoever hacks that system will have, ahem, everything.
This is really no big deal at all. Just fill in the .xlsx template and email it to the ncu@ address, CCing it to yourself. The UK is really simple, compared to the 24hr PN 48hr PN blah blah stuff which is all over France, Belgian Gendec, etc, etc… 
with far higher risk that the email gets “lost”
In reality if you show them your CCd copy, they go away.
Has anyone actually tried this stuff?
Works for me:
Since these threads can be read way later in the future, https://www.aopa.co.uk/go-flying/general-aviation-report-submissions.html is warning that:
“Border Force is bringing in new GA legislation in 2020 that will mandate for GAR data to be submitted using only electronic methods. GARs emailed or faxed will no longer be acceptable or comply with the new legislation.”
Yes, I know it’s 2022 already…
Yes; that has been forecast for years. So maybe for those who want it for free, will have to use that UK Govt GAR website.
Not much luck with gendec.eu. Dead as a dodo:
I have found the problem. Their “sysadmin” has no idea on how to config a server. It works with
The official UK government online form seems to work ok…. have set it up but not actually used it yet:
UK GAR Service
The show-stopper for some at this stage would seem to be the inability to accept family names with multiple words, e.g. van der Berg. This type of family name is fairly common in Germany and Netherlands, just to give a couple examples.
Many people have both first and second names as well as family name in their passport, but I presume that one only needs to enter the first name. The form also won’t accept first names with multiple words, but that shouldn’t be a show-stopper. The last name is.
You could hyphenate these. Or just use Berg.
The GAR form data doesn’t go anywhere to be cross-checked against other databases. Well, maybe they run it against lists of known criminals. Then the local police force decides whether to meet you. IME they turn up 100% anyway (it gets them out of the office) although last 2-3 trips they haven’t turned up. I think they turn up if your passport is from some terrorist country, like Ireland Fly with @Dublinpilot and close attention is assured.
I haven’t looked at that website since soon after they set it up, and it was horrible. Forms designed for blind people… a key plus would be the ability to save passenger details and add them to a GAR quickly. OnlineGAR does that.
Online GAR seems to be broken. It returns a page full of SQL errors starting with “unable to connect to database”.
Peter wrote:
Then the local police force decides whether to meet you. IME they turn up 100% anyway (it gets them out of the office) although last 2-3 trips they haven’t turned up.
Really, you get close to 100%?
I get close to zero – in fact I’ve only been met once (and once they left a message with airfield operations to call them.) Though obviously I don’t fly anything like as often as you.
