Diverting

Recognizing when to quit the plan, working the fuel math, and getting a workable new clearance from ATC.

14 min read · IFR emergencies

After this lesson you can

  • Use a structured decision framework, the 5 Ps or PAVE within the 3P model, to decide whether to divert.
  • Explain why diverting earlier in the flight, from cruise altitude, costs less fuel than diverting from the final approach fix.
  • Get a usable diversion clearance from ATC, including what information to give and expect.
  • Use onboard tools, such as a GPS nearest-airport function and the en route chart, to pick a diversion airport quickly.

Diverting is not a failure of planning, it is the plan working: recognizing early that the flight as filed is not going to work out, and choosing a new airport before you run out of options. The earlier you decide, the more airports are realistically within reach and the more fuel margin you have when you land.

This lesson is about the decision and the mechanics of the diversion itself, not the fuel and alternate-planning regulations behind it. Those, 14 CFR 91.167's fuel reserve rule and 91.169's alternate minimums, including the 1-2-3 rule, are covered in full back in "Alternates and fuel" (IFR M1). Here the question is: you are already airborne, something has changed, now what?

The rest of this lesson

  1. 1.Deciding to divert: a structured framework
  2. 2.Why timing changes the fuel math
  3. 3.Picking the airport
  4. 4.Telling ATC, and what you get back
  5. 5.A diversion is not a failure

These 5 sections, their figures, the checks along the way and the end-of-lesson quiz come with the IFR track. Paid once, yours for good.

See what the IFR track costsEvery module 1 is free to read, no account, no card.

Key terms

Try to recall each definition before turning the card.