Fgd gone off on a tangent as well now and lost me...
My turn for a tangent: doesn't cessnock have west mainland vor for approach??
Captain nomad
How many people do you know of are regularly blasting off VFR with just enough fuel for a destination further than 50nm from departure with no TAF and no alternate? (yes, we all know there will always be a cowboy out there doing it).
How about a scenic operator?? Joy flights?? Instruction?? Aerial photography?? Tug?? All cowboys??
You guys have the problem that your trying to cover every situation known to man - if the rules where written that way they would run out of paper.
I think everyone is in agreeance it's just being semantic and obscuring the regs with half truths with people's interpretations on "technicalities" and "logic". But that's why your in command - ultimately you must adapt and interpret the rules as proficiently as possible to the situations..
These rules where written with the idea that if the aerodrome forecast "became" unserviceable or provisional then you would need an alternate. And that is exactly how it used to read...
In the absence of this and the advent of rnav approaches it has become more stringent in it's interpretation due to the intent of operators. The clause to allow lsalt +500' >8km was to allow dead reckoning or VFR rules effectively for the last route segment - in the absence of an aid or firm forecast this makes sense. Now operators use gnss lnav and rnav everywhere and too many were getting caught out staying Imc for the last route segment and with no evaluation on remaining visual and attempting a continuous decent to the destination many got caught out on min fuel and no alternate. It may have been interpretive as to whether the new(er) rule states that an aerodrome forecast is unavailable or provisional, compared to never available or provisional...
Except it is now clarified under enr 1.10
1.2.3 For flights to a destination for which a aerodrome forecast is re-quired and cannot be obtained or is “provisional”, the flight is per-mitted to depart provided an alternate aerodrome meeting all the requirements specified in ENR 1.1 Section 58. is provided
The aerodrome forecast IS required when under ifr and an approach is present.
An arfor is not as accurate, doesn't include local wind, cb's or isolated weather phenomena. It can have fluctuations and discrepancies of upto 5hpa - which is why we add 50' to mda etc when using area qnh.
Hope this is clear...
Cheers
P.s typing this the same time as scavenger - agreed mate...