Originally Posted by
calcapt
Whether they have cheap gas, HOT line girls and a restaurant close by are just a few of my criteria. The FAA rules governing alternates are a little fuzzy to me and are therefore not considered much. If I can see to land, get the airplane stopped and find the FBO, I'm good. Perhaps a professional would want to provide more legal-eze specifics!
Thats a good way to put it.
You can put down any airport as a alternate AS LONG as the forcasted weather is VFR 1 hour before and after your ETA.
When it is below VFR then you run into the 600/2 and 800/2. Alot of airports have alternate alt mins and some are not authorized for filling as an alternate under IFR conditions.
I hope I'm right, little rusty on the IFR stuff.