pcx,
Also what about the case of a VFR only pilot. He or she may legitimately not know what an instrument approach exists for a particular destination and is certainly not required to have copies of approach plates to find out.
I agree entirely! That is why Jepp ATC pg 304 3.2.13 lists the alternate requirement for VFR which you will notice makes no mention of whether there is an IAP or not. "For flight by aeroplanes under the
VFR (day or night) and helicopters operating under the VFR at night,
the alternate minima are a ceiling of 1500ft and vis of 8km."
This next bit will either help to clinch my logic or further confuse people. I'm an 'illustrations' person as people would have noticed by now as I keep using them!
According to the logic of those such as FGD, you can do the following scenarios without providing for an alternate:
This Sunday morning you can jump in your plane and fly IFR from Perth to Leonora (TAF unavailable) with nothing more than ARFOR (lights - N/A, navaid - tick, weather - got the ARFOR so 'tick'). What's more, you can go back there Sunday night too if you wish! (lights PAL+STBY+ resp. person to turn on for you - tick, navaid - tick, weather - still got the ARFOR so 'tick').
To tricky it up a bit more. The Sunday after that you can fly from Perth up to 'TAF unavailable' Jundee (lights - N/A, navaid - no navaid but LSALT +500 and 8km vis so tick, weather - got the ARFOR so 'tick'). You have a whiz bang TSO146 GPS with FDE prediction etc so once again you can blast off and do it Sunday night too! (lights PAL+STBY+ resp. person to switch the lights for you - tick, navaid - no navaid but got that whiz bang GPS which substitutes for a ground aid so tick, weather - got the ARFOR so 'tick').
I wish you good luck with getting those flights past a safety conscious boss!