Select alternate airport & route

In practice, selecting the alternate is a thirty-second decision — because you've already half-made it on the ground.

Choosing quickly

Run the K1 filter fast: fuel range → usable weather → the closest and easiest of what's left. Bias hard toward better weather and available fuel — a field you can actually land at and refuel beats a marginally closer one you can't use.

Lean on the homework. The candidate fields you noted in planning turn this from cold research into simple recognition: you're not discovering an airport, you're confirming one you already vetted.

On the checkride this is a maneuver. The examiner will say "divert to Plainview," or point at a spot on the chart and say "nearest suitable airport" — and they're watching you turn first and plan second. A clean diversion looks like a prompt turn toward the field, a heading and rough ETE within a few seconds, then the refinement. It does not look like thirty seconds of heads-down silence while the airplane flies itself somewhere you never chose.

The route

Direct is good, but direct isn't always safe. Route:

• Around terrain you can't outclimb.
• Around airspace you're not cleared into — a Class B floor, a restricted area, an active MOA.
• Away from the weather you're diverting because of — turning toward the very storms or low ceilings you're fleeing is a classic, deadly trap. If a wall of rain is building to the west and your nearest field sits behind it, the nearest field is the wrong field: pick one you can reach in clear air, even if it's farther.

Before you fully commit, confirm the field is actually usable — the chart tells you a lot at a glance: a star by the symbol means a rotating beacon (lighted), the data block lists the longest runway and the field elevation, and fuel availability is shown in the legend's airport symbology. A two-second check that the field is public, lit if you'll need it, and has fuel saves you from committing to a closed or unsuitable strip.

Then commit: pick a heading, start the turn, and refine. Flying roughly the right direction now beats a perfect route computed while you drift past your fuel margin. The selection is a means to an end — getting the airplane pointed at a safe place — not a planning exercise to perfect in the air. And when things are urgent, remember the ranking: a survivable surface into the wind outranks a perfect airport every single time.