Well I had a second look at SERA and still cannot find the requirement, so it probably did die in the translation.
As for it being 'common sense'? Who do you 'tell' Fine if it is a full service aerodrome (and SERA does require the equivalent of booking out there) but the average strip?
Remember this requirement came in at a time when if you had a well equipped aircraft it had a 360ch radio and probably no transponder. Gadgets like EPIRBs or PLBs were science fiction - as indeed were mobile phones!
Those technologies make the old requirement look pretty daft.