Hi Bob Tait and IREX students,

I recently sat the IREX (failed by one mark) and one of the questions that I got wrong was in regard to alternate criteria at Kingsford Smith, Sydney.

Having re-read through my Jepps in greater detail, I've noticed it says that in TERMINAL AU-28 6.2.2. "Special alternate minima will not be available and will revert to the standard alternate minima when: local METAR/SPECI or forecasting services are not available"

I just want to clarify the double negative in the phrasing here, and so to my understanding; does this mean that if no METAR/SPECI if forecast in the TAF/TTF the special minimas CANNOT be used to determine whether an alternate is needed? Because I know the questions try and trick you with irrelevant or unnecessary information and im sure the question I got wrong re Kingsford Smith had all this SPECI information in the forecast which was irrelevant to the ETA for the question, yet which I proceeded to consider against the special minimas

Thanks in advance,

Nelson

Nelson

It means that, if you are a qualifying aircraft [two ILSs], you can use the special alternate minima as long as you have a current TTF METAR/SPECI.

Without knowing the exact wording of the question there are a couple of points that may be relevant. Firstly, the Sydney Met service is available 24 hours a day, so unless something unusual happens, you would always have a METAR/SPEC forecast and the special alternate minima would always be availabe.





Also OZY has two ILS receivers so it would qualify for the special alternate minima.

I'm not sure if this had anything to do with that particular question, but if holding had been mentioned, Sydney has a requirement in ERSA for traffic holding depending on your ETA.



Regards

Bob