Filing an international alternate

Douglas

Douglas

Old School KSUX
Lets say you fly from the United States to Canada.

Weather required an alternate. At your destination you go missed and proceed to your alternate. Your are part 91 so you don't have a dispatcher to talk to.

I am assuming your alternate has to be a "port of entry", but would you notify them that they are the alternate prior to leaving just like you did for your destination?


or

Is it a do-and-ask-for-permissions-later deal.



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What about leaving the US, shoot an approach into Montreal, go missed but Burlington VT is looking good, would it be a no-no to cross the border again to get into Burlington.
Yeah you are on an IFR flight plan but Border patrol/Customs didn't know you are coming and there was no eAPIS filled.

Any words of wisdom literature would be appreciated.
 
Good questions. You are having to navigate the requirements of an IFR flight while also satisfying the requirements of US Customs.
 
Customs is required to accommodate you in the event of an emergency or weather diversion.

I don't know about Canada customs, but I do a lot of Bahamas and Caribbean, and I'd be willing to bet it would be a little bit of a hassle, but not much. Customs in most countries is more about money than anything else. If you pay them for them helping you out on short notice, then everything will be alright.

As for coming back into the US, the same applies. Use due diligence to notify customs of your diversion as soon as possible, either via satphone or an FBO UNICOM/ARINC.

Regarding border crossing and then turning back. The borders don't much matter. For example, you often fly well outside the ADIZ when flying the east coast. If I were to file a flight plan from Norfolk to Nassau, go feet wet south of Wilmington, cross the ADIZ and then have an emergency requiring a divert to Charleston, I don't have to deal with customs.
 
From the "Guide for Private Flyers"

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]If an emergency landing is made in the United States, the pilot should report arrival by telephone or radio to the nearest CBP office as promptly as possible. The pilot should keep all baggage and merchandise together in a separate place and should not allow any passengers or crewmembers to leave the place of arrival or come into contact with the public without official permission from CBP to do so, unless such action is necessary to preserve life, health, or property. If a CBP officer is not present upon arrival, the same procedures, just described above, should be followed.
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[/FONT]
 
TFaudree_ERAU said:
From the "Guide for Private Flyers"

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True for an emergency, but what is the SOP for just a regular missed and doing what you need to do in the IFR world to find an airport that you can get into.

or are you saying that going missed in this situation is an emergency?
 
Douglas said:
True for an emergency, but what is the SOP for just a regular missed and doing what you need to do in the IFR world to find an airport that you can get into.

or are you saying that going missed in this situation is an emergency?
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How would they argue that it wasn't?

You wouldn't divert until you had no other option. You would have obviously done your part to ensure the weather forecast was suitable for your intended destination, otherwise you wouldn't have taken off. You shoot the approach, miss, maybe hold for a while, evaluate the weather, etc etc. As a last resort, you divert. It may not be an emergency when you land, but it very well could have turned into that if you continued trying to land at your intended destination. Compromising safety, just to make customs happy? Remember who works for who.
 
i haven't had to do it in the us, but coming back from europe once gander went down and off we went to st. john's. called canpass from there, and they weren't the least bit concerned. read us our number and told us to have a nice day.
 
gne in prog said:
i haven't had to do it in the us, but coming back from europe once gander went down and off we went to st. john's. called canpass from there, and they weren't the least bit concerned. read us our number and told us to have a nice day.
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:beer:

Good to know that diverting in Canada to another Canadian port is A-okay.
 
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