All this will require online entry.
That would be very stupid. They need an alternative way, when their system is down. I’m sure this will happen as there are multiple systems involved.
They could have build the ultimate system, available 24/7/365. I work long enough in IT to know this is not the case.
Lets recap what happened.
Some very enthusiastic chap started it and got AOPA on board. Their main goal was to reduce filing times.
Did this materialise? Nope. Same deadlines.
Someone in BF recognised the potential in saving money and wants to make it compulsory.
Are be better off than before? Nope, we just pay the savings of the BF.
It is just another attempt to improve something and it backfired big time.
I had a nice VFR bimble from Germany to Czech Republic recently. No GAR, No flight plan. I just flew there. This is how it should be!
All one can do now is to follow this link, then click on “Free Basic Service” and then proceed to the onlinegar login.
Sure enough, they are trying hard to make it as awkward as possible…
That is a very good find, Bosco.
For me it says I have 3 credits left. Not sure what that means… I used this form only for the CTA – everything else I email.
Their main goal was to reduce filing times.
For me, the biggest bonus would be to file the CTA GARs, which for my area could only be faxed (no email) and their fax was often not working. I don’t have any problem with emailing or faxing. For fax I use an email to fax service where I just email a PDF, etc.
I wonder how realistic any filing time reduction hope would have ever been. If I was one of the police operators I would definitely want the 4 hours’ notice to meet up somebody. The 12/24hr notice for the CTA is excessive.
The Border Force are going to have a very hard time forcing foreigners to use a website, especially a commercial website, and if they try they will have so many problems they will have to take a step back.
I am not sure its a problem asking (or even forcing) foreign pilots to complete the form, but for me it’s the publication of the form in a way that’s transparent so people know they have to do it if coming to the UK, and where the form is. One way or another someone has to do something electronically whether it be fax, email or an online form. What is a pain is if you leave it to the last minutes and then realise you have to sign up, login, pay your £3 or whatever it might be in Euro’s.
I might do L2K tomorrow and I have seen the new version of the form implemented in SD, and it looks great – if you have SD and don’t mind paying the £3. I also like the new web based system compared to the previous version, which sadly I found extremely quirky, and I feel for the person who spent his time working on that.
I am not defending the Border Force but they are going to force the electronic systems’ use. The police forces are even more likely to require it.
The electronic system is so much better. I don’t own a fax machine and having to dig out forms, go to work to use the fax, and then if I had to cancel find a bunch of phone numbers and tell plod I was canceling was a huge disincentive to going somewhere. I didn’t learn to fly for the pleasure of filling out a bunch of useless forms and paperwork. Using onlinegar.com is millions of times better than faxes. Good riddance fax based system for the CTA.
However the UKBF needs to make sure there is fair access to their API. While onlinegar.com is well designed and works well, it shouldn’t just be handed a monopoly (unless the UKBF are actually going to fund it rather than the pilots.)
Also the notice requirements need to be reduced. 4 hours is more than enough. (IMHO the whole GAR process for the CTA is a waste of time. Boaters don’t have to do anything like it and you can get a lot more terrorists in a small boat than you can in a typical spam can).
Of course an online (web based) system is better – but only if it is done to support the workflow which people actually use.
The key thing is that most people don’t fly purely alone. So there is a need to store passenger details, etc, with an easy copy/paste/whatever facility. This is why many continue to use the email system. You have a Word template, keep all the past GAR forms (under names which make it easy to find e.g. LDLO-EGKA-20140526.doc), and just pull out the old one which is the same (or broadly similar) to the one you want in terms of the passenger details, and you re-use that one, perhaps with a bit of copy/paste the passenger detail changes. The pilot and aircraft details of course don’t change.
You now have two options.
One is to do the confidential data storage on the client. This means
The other is to present a straight web interface and do the confidential data storage on the server. This means
So we got the very last one above.
It’s OK for “us locals” but I think it will cause trouble for foreigners.
But then the commercial facility offers some free filings, doesn’t it?
Why haven’t you tried onlinegar?
I haven’t got around to it because I have been using email.
But I have just tried it. It already knew my email address, so either I set it up ages ago or they got the AOPA Silverlight details transferred to them.
Most curiously, it says I have 3 free credits – just like the AOPA gateway said today! I wonder if the two go to the same place?
It now looks very good. My only negative comment is that the cost is approximately 2x to 3x the cost of a Brit airfield all day breakfast so people will use the free alternatives for as long as possible 
On the AOPA gateway, they will show you how many credits are left, but if you file from there, it won’t use up any of them. They both work through onlinegar (with the login), that’s why you will always see your number of credits. But yes, it’s a tad confusing seeing them on the AOPA page.
Did you see how neatly you can save, store and then re-use aircraft and pax details? If you had tried it before, your previous post would have turned out much shorter…
My previous post was a general one. I knew the Onlinegar product has the database facility 
But it’s not free.
but if you file from there, it won’t use up any of them
That is interesting!
