MajorLemond,
You do
NOT require an alternate for the IFR scenario you described.
About 90% of the people you ask this question of, however, will say that you do, because they are reading the following rule too literally:
AIP ENR 1.1 57.1.3
When an aerodrome forecast is not available or provisional, the PIC must make provision for a suitable alternate that has a firm forecast.
The words "not available" in that rule do not mean what the 90% think they do.
That rule is actually referring to cases where an aerodrome forecast is USUALLY available (i.e those places with navaids that have TAF coverage for the daytime only). During night hours, there will be no TAF - so this rule then applies.
This rule does NOT apply to aerodromes that never have TAFs issued for them.
I could go into why the rules are like this but I might save that for a future post.
For those that think an IFR flight DOES require an alternate in this scenario but a VFR flight does NOT, have another look at that rule (above). You will see that it does not distinguish between IFR and VFR.
So, according to the 90%, VFR flights can't go very far, because they always must be carrying alternate fuel to an aerodrome that has a TAF!
The 90% are wrong, of course, because the interpretation of that rule is the same for VFR as it is for IFR - and it means that, just like for IFR, the VFR flight does NOT need an alternate in the scenario given.
Some have suggested that you can plan without an alternate using the "500` Above LSALT / 8km at Aerodrome rule" and just use the Area Forecast
Correct! This rule would not exist if the interpretation of the 90% was correct.