Originally Posted by
JohnR
Thats clear , thanks. Only problem is that I have flown many other times at night as well, recently back from Antwerp to Wellesbourne, take off at 1900 and never got charged. Must have been lucky!
If no-one books you out or records your departure as IFR it will never be recorded as chargeable.
You may have struck lucky in departing somewhere they don't record your departure as IFR and no-one else enroute or on arrival (at Wellsbourne) is going to log it as IFR.
Despite rumours to the contrary, if you received an ATC service and declared yourself IFR in your "pass your message" call (or it was night in the UK) you
still wouldn't be charged if you departed "VFR" or were logged as departing "VFR" and you were inbound somewhere like Wellsbourne
So, to clarify, Liverpool must have logged you outbound IFR when you did get charged as no-one else would have done enroute or on arrival. They would have done this if it was night or if you had filed an IFR flightplan.