Agreed -- the airplane should never get anywhere your brain hasn't already been at least five minutes earlier. And the missed should be still be considered even if you don't think it's likely -- things can happen.
That's more true now than it was 30-40 years ago, but I suspect that in some parts of the country where radar coverage is skimpy or less it still happens for real. In any event, it's a valid question on an IR practical test and fair game on an IPC, so every pilot with instrument privileges should know the correct answer.
Might be more accurate to say you should be talking to ATC -- or maybe just "hope you will." Many a slip 'twixt cup and lip, and once in a great while you get to the MAH fix before you get communication going again on a missed from an approach to a nontowered airport.
Change "will" to "should" and I'll buy that. There are no guarantees on things like this. That's why the question should be asked if the OP doesn't know the answer, even if the chances of getting to that point are small.
Why do they "have to"? What guarantees they won't be so busy they can't talk to you until you get there and then must, lacking a further clearance when reaching your clearance limit, be forced to hold?
That's not why we have to file alternates. The reason for that is the FAA wants to force idiots to carry more fuel than they would if they weren't forced to carry enough to have reasonable minimum safety margins. There is nothing in 91.185 even suggesting, no less requiring, that one go to one's filed alternate after missing at their destination in a lost comm situation. In that situation, you've flown past the limit of the regulations, and you do whatever you think best to end the flight safely.
Not just "can," but "shall" do so.
In what FAA publication did you find that idea? And what controller is going to care what you used for your routing to your filed alternate?
If you're speaking of what you do if LVK is your destination and you lose comm on your way there, I agree. If you're speaking of what you do if you lose comm and then miss at your destination, I do not -- in that situation, you've gone beyond what it says in 91.185(c) and you're entirely on your own to figure out what to do next.
No, it's not. Read 91.185. Read the AIM. Read 7110.65. The one and only reason the FAA requires filing an alternate is to force you to carry a reasonably safe amount of fuel for contingencies.
I would point out that it's never been mentioned in the lost comm rule. If you miss an approach due to weather, it probably is because you're a victim of a bum forecast. If you haven't lost comm, then you can work out a routing to an alternate which reflects real time conditions. If you happen to be without comms, though, why would you want to be locked into a routing based on unreliable forecasted conditions?
What a Center sup says isn't relevant on this question. You call the FAA Flight Standards Procedures Branch (AFS-420) or AFS-820 (which writes Part 91 flight rules) and ask them about the purpose of designating an alternate.
Bull. I've got 28 years in ATC, nine of that at ZAU ARTCC. I wouldn't even bother looking for the filed alternate of an aircraft with lost comm, and I doubt any other controller I've known would. It'd be a waste of time, I'm not going to base separation on it.
That may be what some controllers think, but it's not what Flight Standards puts out to pilots and it's not written anywhere in any pilot-directed document. And it's definitely not why the FAA wrote the regs on alternates and fuel requirements.
Do yourself a favor -- read 14 CFR 91.185, the AIM, and FAA Ordere 7110.65 and stop listening to a couple of random people who are not authorized to speak for the FAA on this topic.
He/she doesn't need to tell me because it's expected of me. They will clear the airspace a head of me.
Floundering around on my own picking and flying what ever approach I think may work is a disaster waiting to happen. It would create total chaos trying to guess where I'm going and trying to clear people out of my way.
Fly the miss and proceed to the alternate. Heck, they even know your route because you put it in the "remarks"..
