Choosing An Alternate

Most IFR operations dont require an alternate airport. Thats because the advertised weather often is better than required to select one and list it in a flight plan. That doesnt mean we shouldnt at least have something in mind as an alternative place to land if, say, some nummy lands gear-up at your destination or, as we saw in December 2017, an entire major airport finds itself without power.

Tuesday, January 16, 2018 at 12:00 AM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

An IFR alternate airport is required if the destination lacks a published approach, or if the forecast weather (one hour before to one hour after ETA) does not meet the "1-2-3 rule" (2000 ft ceiling, 3 statute miles visibility).
To be a legal alternate, its forecast weather at the estimated time of arrival must meet specific minimums—either published for its approach procedures or standard minima (e.g., 600 ft ceiling/2 sm visibility for precision, 800 ft ceiling/2 sm visibility for non-precision).
New FAA policy allows planning a GPS approach for either the destination or the alternate (but not both), provided the flight plan includes a non-GPS approach option for at least one of them.

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Most IFR operations don’t require an alternate airport. That’s because the advertised weather often is better than required to select one and list it in a flight plan. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t at least have something in mind as an alternative place to land if, say, some nummy lands gear-up at your destination or, as we saw in December 2017, an entire major airport finds itself without power.

For those occasions when an alternate is required, there are some rules that apply. And some of those rules are directed at the equipment we carry or the planned destination. Although this isn’t that complicated, there are a couple of ways to screw it up. Deciding whether we need an alternate is where we start.