Ostend -> London route information

[alex90]

I always learned the UK side is covered by the GAR form, though it has become less easy to file as I understand;

What do you mean by less easy to file? At Biggin Hill, you can file: General aviation report form | London Biggin Hill Airport and send it to them by email to ops [ at ] bigginhillairport [dot] com and kindly ask for the form to be forwarded to border control, they are normally very happy to do that for you.

Alternatively, although I haven't used it - I believe this tool is free : https://www.onlinegar.com/aopa.olg and allows you to file in GAR forms. A second alternative is to use SkyDemon to file your GAR and your flight plan for you...

So in the UK. I still deem that very easy to file and organise - what do you think?

With Europe, customs airport are normally rather frequent despite the whole Schengen zone, and if not - there isn't much harm in landing somewhere that is a "customs airport" and then takeoff again to any Schengen country thereafter. Although this may have changed after recent events (why do all these b**ta*ds keep trying to kill our joy & happiness?) I have frequently landed and told that there wasn't any fuel available, and that I better takeoff again to my next destination to pickup fuel. All that without meeting anyone at all.

But again... I sound like a broken record i know - but Southend, is blissfully easy... Come out the terminal, 1min walk to the train station, then 45ish mins into Liverpool Street Station. As far as I am aware, an airport with facilities to land in relatively bad weather / recent heavy rain (as it has a hard runway) - I wouldn't hesitate to land there. Don't be frightened off by the class D airspace - they are still really kind and happy to accept you, the class D airspace is more about the fact that people kept creeping into their zone without even monitoring their frequency, and with increasing commercial jet traffic, that's just not (as) safe...