Diverting in flight
Choosing an alternate you can reach, working the course out without a plotter, and using the resources on board rather than doing arithmetic while the weather closes.
12 min read · Navigation
After this lesson you can
- Name the circumstances that make a diversion prudent, and decide before the decision gets harder.
- Select an alternate destination against the criteria that matter in the air.
- Approximate a course and time to an alternate without plotting.
- Use the automation, ATC and flight deck aids available rather than working alone.
The Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge puts it without drama: there may come a time when a pilot is not able to make it to the planned destination - unpredicted weather, a system malfunction, or poor preflight planning. In any case, the pilot needs to be able to divert safely and efficiently to an alternate.
The handbook adds the sentence that turns this from navigation into decision-making: risk management procedures become a priority during any type of flight diversion. And the trigger is not always yours: an ATC instruction can require the deviation as surely as weather can, and a clearance you cannot accept is itself a situation that demands one. Its own example is the sharpest one available - the hazards of inadvertent VFR into IMC are a risk the pilot can identify, assess, and then mitigate through a pre-planned or in-flight diversion around the weather.
The rest of this lesson
- 1.What makes a deviation necessary, including the ones ATC hands you
- 2.Choosing the alternate
- 3.Working out the course without plotting it
- 4.Using the resources rather than doing it alone
These 4 sections, their figures, the checks along the way and the end-of-lesson quiz come with the PPL track. Paid once, yours for good.
Key terms
Try to recall each definition before turning the card.