Can I use GPS approach at alternate?

The point of the special rules using GPS as an alternate has to do with the fact that non-WAAS GPS is supplementary navigation. So you can file with the destination or the alternate having only a GPS approach, but not both. WAAS-equipped aircraft can file for destinations and alternates having only GPS approaches.



Yes, you can use a GPS (RNAV) approach at your alternate airport, but the specific requirements depend on your aircraft's equipment. Under FAA regulations, pilots with WAAS-equipped GPS (TSO-C145/146) can plan to use any GPS-based approach at both the destination and the alternate, including LPV minimums. However, if you are using a non-WAAS GPS (TSO-C129/196), you must have Fault Detection and Exclusion (FDE) and perform a pre-flight RAIM prediction. For non-WAAS users, you can only plan for LNAV or circling minimums at the alternate, even if the approach has LNAV/VNAV or LPV lines. If these conditions aren't met, the alternate must have a non-GPS approach available (like ILS or VOR) that the aircraft is equipped to fly. These rules ensure that even if GPS integrity fails, you have a viable way to land. This regulatory shift occurred in 2013, significantly expanding options for IFR pilots who previously had to ensure a ground-based nav-aid was available at every alternate.

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From a practical standpoint, this means that if your original destination only has RNAV approaches, your alternate airport must have an approved instrument approach procedure, other than GPS, that is anticipated to be operational and available at the estimated time of arrival, and which the aircraft is equipped to fly.

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Yes, you can shoot a VOR approach with GPS only as long as the title of the approach is titled, VOR/GPS. To count the approach as a VOR approach on an FAA flight test will require that the VOR be tuned to the appropriate station and identified.

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According to the FAA, if you're using an airport with LPV only (no ILS or other ground-based navaid approach) as your alternate airport, you need weather minimums that meet the LNAV or circling MDA, or the LNAV/VNAV DA if you're equipped to fly it.

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What this means practically is that a pilot may utilize their GPS RNAV system to actually fly along a VOR approach beyond the final approach fix as long as they can “monitor” the VOR (or TACAN or NDB) on a secondary radio and ensure that the GPS is navigating along the appropriate NAVAID course for the approach.

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LNAV approaches are less precise (556m lateral limit) and therefore usually do not allow the pilot to descend to as low an altitude above the runway.

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When a VOR is decommissioned, it is replaced with a GPS-based intersection and GPS-based airways. Sometimes the DME is retained even if the VOR is removed.

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14 CFR 91.169 (b) (2) (i) states that an alternate airport is not required if “for at least 1 hour before and for 1 hour after the estimated time of arrival the ceiling will be at least 2000 feet above the airport elevation and the visibility will be at least 3 statute miles.” To help remember those conditions of the ...

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It's called the 3-2-1 rule, and it's the easiest way to remember the regulation. To recap, if the weather at your destination isn't at least 3 SM of visibility and 2000' AGL ceilings from 1 hour before to 1 hour after your ETA, you need to file an alternate.

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Airports without weather reporting, or approaches with unmonitored approach equipment, can't be used as an alternate.

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Takeoff is always achieved manually. However, depending on the aircraft type and airport approach facilities, they can be landed automatically using an instrument landing system coupled with onboard equipment. However, given a choice, most pilots prefer to perform a manual landing.

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Most of the time, yes. Sometimes we might take a visual approach, but that's rare especially at the big airports who will guide you through radar vectors to an ILS under strict speed control, but even if we do carry out a rare visual approach, if the ILS is up and running we can still use that for extra guidance.

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