Here we are in easy reach of the Continent for drug and/or people smugglers. It is amongst our various forces' tasks to check logged a/c movements against reported activity. These are generally thought to take place very early or late in a day.

@Patowalker & @Mike: totally agree, there is not the slightest inconvenience, at the contrary. There are mischievous people around in small planes, there are recorded cases of smuggling people and drugs, particularly to the UK, so it is only normal that controls occur; any correctly-minded aviator will endorse and support such controls.

@Pilot DAR: next time you come to Europe, give me a call, and I'll show you the police controls at airports, railways stations, and seaports (check Zeebrugge and/or Calais, there must be plenty of pictures and movies showing the extremities some people will go to). I bet you'll be quick to agree it is the least of nuisances to write down one's flying in a logbook, compared to the draconic measures applied in other modes of transportation.

On the other hand it must be said there are no registers of departures/arrivals at French non-controlled fields, yet I cannot remember reports of intense illegal activity there.

On a side note: my home field is next to the grounds of one of Belgium's main summer music festivals, Pukkelpop. Like at all those festivals, police helicopters are around all the while, and they'll often land at ours for a break. They are always made very welcome, and the few times I talked to those crews I found them of course very professional but on top of that quite enjoyable company. Of course they know how to be polite :) But we don't consider police as intruders here, or as enemies of our privacy. Our CAA are much less popular! But that is a matter quite separate.

Okay, I don't really see the issue. My home runway is 89 miles from the nearest United States aerodrome, so were I to be thinking of smuggling, it's well within the range of any of my planes. Indeed, a number of years back, a drug smuggler was caught landing at a friend's home runway only ten miles from me. But, we certainly do not log aircraft movements as aerodromes, nor on or off bodies of water. My daily flying is logged for each of my planes, but it makes no mention of location, just a total time for the day's flying.

Were the police to be interested in the movements from my home runway, or any other non tower runway in Canada, their only way of gathering data would be to sit off the end of each runway, and write down registrations, which, as any citizen, they are free to do. Otherwise, I keep my planes at home exactly so I can fly where and when I want, without accounting to anyone for it. Not that I have anything to hide, but I'm not going to go to more effort to create evidence either!

To respond to Jan's post, I have had the police stop in for a visit, as well as a military helicopter, no problem, I have nothing to hide here. But, if someone is going to use a plane for smuggling, I very much doubt that they are going to write down their smuggling flights for an evidence record for later!

Whoa... not me! I'm correctly minded, but I'm not going to document my daily movements for the convenience of the police! I live my life, they do their job. Unless I actually am directly suspected of breaking the law, our paths don't ever cross! I don't write down when I drive, so not my flying either!

In answer to the OP’s original question.

You’re making it too complicated. When you land and book in, just ask how you book out.

It will either be by visiting the tower, by phone, over the radio, by filling in a book yourself, or at one place I landed by a dedicated phone on a table which gave you a direct line up to the tower.

easiest just to ask when you book in, it’s not usually published.

I appreciate the advice, but with respect, I think it is evident from the responses in this thread that I'm not.
Booking out serves a valuable process at busy GA airfields in that it frees up the tower controller from avoidable chit chat and ensures they start with a comprehensive flight progress strip. I get that this process isn't relevant either where the airfield routinely deals with aircraft filing flight plans or those with plenty of time for information exchange but it would seem to me to be good practice for the PIC to prepare for their flight and know the local process in advance.
Sure you can ask when you arrive. You can also ask controllers for all your enroute frequencies and a weather forecast.

It would do no harm if this information was available in a consistent location and format. It's not, and I've already got over it. :)

Had a chat with a local FISO here in UK.
Booking out over the radio fine with him when he's quite and this is normal for aircraft based there. Visiting aircraft (PPR) pilots toddle up to the tower to pay their landing fee and tend to book out informally when they do so.
He would normally like the intended destination (or that it is a local flight) and number of POB. The fuel endurance and type gathered by the phone-based booking out procedure of another local aerodrome is irrelevant to him and felt to be the pilot's responsibility. During our approx. 15 min chat on a fine day, there was one radio call.

Potentially opening another can of worms, he also pointed out that the airfield's website publishes live information that is similar in content to a typical departure ATIS announcement, thus making the initial call shorter than it might otherwise be.

I think what you're looking for is STANDARDISATION. Unless enforced by legislation, it ain't gonna happen, everyone's going to have their own ideas and local peculiarities.
You can do one of three things:
a) admire and embrace the diversity if operation at different aerodromes and of life's rich pattern.
b) rail against it
c) get legislation put in place to make everyone do the same thing.
Personally, I'm an a) person.
I think it would be an enormous shame if c) were to come to pass.

TOO
ps
Historically, I think the requirement to 'book out' at UK aerodromes arose from the disappearance on a flight of the son of a once-famous but now-forgotten comedian, Michael Bentine. I think he managed to be a c) person, but things have gradually flopped back to how they were before.

I think I'm looking for consistency and making it clear that I accept that it doesn't exist. Anything beyond that is I believe called "transference".

Ps/ I've not forgotten Michael Bentine any more than I have Spike Milligan (or the other one). 😂

Harry Secombe, Peter Sellers and not forgetting Max Geldray on harmonica.
I've still some 1/4 inch tapes I recorded off the Light Programme, but of course you can get many of the shows from various sources.
TOO
Wow, how's that for thread drift? Gotta get The Goons in somewhere.