However, there is an exception — Page 35, Lesson 59

Let’s start with the topic of destination alternates — the diversion aerodromes you plan to use if you cannot land at your intended destination. On the Operational Flight Plan, or OFP, the selected destination alternate aerodromes must be listed in detail. For every flight conducted under Instrument Flight Rules — IFR — you are normally required to select at least one destination alternate. That is the baseline rule. However, there is an exception. You are not required to nominate a destination alternate if two conditions are met simultaneously. First condition: the duration of the planned flight from take-off to landing — or, if the flight has been re-planned, the remaining flight time — must not exceed six hours. Second condition: at the destination aerodrome itself, two separate runways must be available and useable. And the meteorological reports and forecasts must indicate that, from one hour before the estimated time of arrival until one hour after the ETA, the ceiling will be at least two thousand feet or the circling height plus five hundred feet — whichever of those two values is greater. Additionally, the visibility must be not less than five kilometres. Let me unpack that ceiling requirement. The term 'ceiling' here means the height above ground of the lowest cloud layer that is reported as broken or overcast. The regulation gives you a choice: you take two thousand feet, or you take the circling minimum altitude for that aerodrome plus five hundred feet, and you use whichever number is larger. So if the circling height is, say, one thousand feet, then one thousand plus five hundred gives you fifteen hundred feet — but two thousand feet is greater, so the ceiling must be at least two thousand feet. If the circling height were eighteen hundred feet, then eighteen hundred plus five hundred gives you twenty-three hundred feet, which is greater than two thousand, so the ceiling must be at least twenty-three hundred feet. And the visibility must be at least five kilometres. So, to summarise the exception: if the flight is six hours or less, the destination has two separate useable runways, and the weather from one hour before to one hour after ETA shows a ceiling at or above the higher of two thousand feet or circling height plus five hundred feet, and visibility at least five kilometres — then you may omit a destination alternate from the OFP. Otherwise, you must select at least one destination alternate and list it in the OFP.