Yeah, good point...especially if the weather at your destination is on
the edge of minimums and/or likely to change quickly.

I firmly believe in always filing an alternate. For this trip, mine was
Livermore (which we flew over on the way there). Had the plates already
out and had read through them the night before the trip. My alternate
this time is located where weather tends to be better than in the bay
area and it was fairly close. Still, thinking "What do I need to do to
get to the alternate if I need to "while still headed to your primary
destination is a much better way to do it than "Rats, I went missed,
where is that approach plate for the alternate?...How do I get
there?...Where is the terrain?"

I could have just bailed and gone back home as we had plenty of fuel.
However, the need to eat soon as well as just get on the ground and
decompress was pretty much the deciding factor in heading to the alternate.

Another thing that factored into not trying a second approach was that
we'd likely be a tad late for the appointment which might have pushed me
into some night IMC conditions on the way home. At this point in my
relatively young flying career, I'd rather not do night IMC without a
CFII in the right seat.


--
Jack Allison
PP-ASEL-Instrument Airplane

"To become a Jedi knight, you must master a single force. To become
a private pilot you must strive to master four of them"
- Rod Machado

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