Where’s It Say That?

There I was, a cocky preppy with an airplane, trying to get home after a week at the beach. I’d flown a borrowed Skyhawk about 3.5 hours since full tanks, leaving me about 1.5 to dry ones. It was Sunday and the weather sucked. I could get out fine with an IFR clearance, but the beach-side airport where I landed had no fuel.Remember how the IFR alternate rules work when filing a flight plan? If the destination airport TAF or area forecast, within an hour either side of your ETA, advertises less than a 2000-foot ceiling and three statute miles, you need to file an alternate airport in your flight plan. In turn, that alternate airport has to have a forecast of 600/2 for precision approaches or 800/2 for non-precision. No problem. My destination was advertising something like 1500/5. I could get there VFR, but I had to file an alternate.

Key Takeaways:

• A pilot with limited fuel and IFR conditions attempted to file his destination airport as both his primary destination and his alternate, despite initial resistance from the flight briefer.
• His initial fuel calculations showed insufficient reserves if he had to divert to a traditional alternate after a missed approach, leading him to rely on improving weather forecasts at his destination.
• The flight was completed safely, but the pilot acknowledged that this filing strategy violated the spirit, if not the letter, of ambiguous IFR alternate regulations and was an unsafe practice.

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