Yes, barne_as, I agree that the filing of a flight plan certainly seems to trigger the chain of handovers such that the destination ATC is expecting you to show up. For example, in my case, Blackpool will say "we already have your details" (handed over by EGNS) etc, which is comforting when half way across the sea, but I wonder if there is any true monitoring with regards a priori, pro-active "sending out the helicopter" should a VFR flight not appear within the flight plan window -- or not (i.e, essentially ignored from that point of view) ?