On 7 Dec 2004 14:39:26 -0800, "Michael"
wrote:

iYou don't have to go to your alternate if you don't wnat to,
ever./i

True. But why bother with working out your actual Plan B, making sure
fuel and weather are going to be OK for it - and then filing something
else? I generally make it a point to file as my alternate what I
really intend to use, unless legalities prevent me from doing so.
Michael

You said this:

"Whenever I make a business trip from Houston to Austin when the
weather is iffy in Austin but not in Houston, I file my alternate back
in Houston. If I can't get in at Austin, it does me no good to get in
somewhere 50 miles away with no arrangements for ground transport"


implying that you would be stuck going "fifty miles away" just because
it was filed as an alternate.

This isn't true, and maybe it wasn't what you intended to suggest.
You could go back to Houston regardless.

If you intended to say that it saved the trouble of a separate flight
plan to a different alternate to compute fuel requirements, I agree.