JAP OPS minima

[Hufty]

OK here's a question - you're planning a flight from A to B with C as your only alternate. Both destination and alternate airfields are only Cat 1 equipped.
You check the weather prior to departure and it complies with JAR planning minima i.e the weather at your destination (B) is just above Cat 1 minima and the weather at your alternate (C) is just above the non precision minima.

So you launch off.

In the cruise you check the weather and the destination weather is now well BELOW Cat 1 minima and the alternate has dropped to below the non precision minima. You still have enough fuel to turn back to your departure point where the weather is fine.

Question...just focusing on the LEGALITIES of this particular situation, not necessarily what you would really do. Can you legally continue? You have the alternate available to you but it no longer meets the planning minima requirements it had to prior to departure. In other words, in this situation, does the alternate weather need to be at or better than the airfield operating minima or the planning minima you applied prior to departure?

I know you can legally make an approach to your destination as far as the outer marker, but I want to understand at what point you would legally have to return to your point of departure??

Any takers? :hmm:

[skiesfull]

Don't confuse planning with actual - once you have departed, you can use the lowest minima for your alternate. However, since your destination is below minima, prudence may require you to return to your departure point, since if the alternate ( your new destination) is marginal, where would you divert to if you found it below minimums at MDA? Always use logic and 'the worst possible case' in your decision making.

[bookworm]

1.340(c) On an IFR flight, a commander shall not
continue towards the planned destination aerodrome
unless the latest information available indicates that,
at the expected time of arrival, the weather
conditions at the destination, or at least one
destination alternate aerodrome, are at or above the
applicable aerodrome operating minima.
This refers to the aerodrome operating minima of 1.430, not the planning minima of 1.297.