DME soft key

[yl472401]

Thanks for the heads up. Do you mind post a picture of the soft keys you see on your PFD? I’m trying To figure out if your aircraft has the dedicated DME unit or not ?


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Bryan, almost certainly my aircraft (2008 XLS) does not have a DME unit installed... and aside from widespread GPS outage as Russ describes (of the government-run system itself, as we all fly with several backups to the in-panel avionics), I personally see ZERO reason to have an actual DME unit.
My aircraft is in the shop (new prop finally installed, awaiting full annual signoff), so the screen image I posted was from my home sim.
Wayne

Got the DME info showed up on the PFD.



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[Rich]

Here's a real shocker to me, related to parts of this discussion: On a Facebook group I'm in I see owners "upgrading" their panels such that the navigation equipment becomes GPS ONLY. Radios are comms only. Some aver that this is getting common in experimental aircraft. Even worse, I've seen cases where there was only a single GPS unit.

[Colin]

That is an extremely bad idea. I have been without my GPS three times in a dozen years and knowing how to tune the nav radio and find my way on the victor airways was a nice alternative to having to just land and wait out the outage.

[Boatguy]

That is an extremely bad idea. I have been without my GPS three times in a dozen years and knowing how to tune the nav radio and find my way on the victor airways was a nice alternative to having to just land and wait out the outage.

When you lost GPS, fair to assume you also lost DME? Can you expand on how you navigated an airway without DME? Did the G1000 dead reckoning come into play? Did you use two VORs to get a fix?

[Rich]

That is an extremely bad idea. I have been without my GPS three times in a dozen years and knowing how to tune the nav radio and find my way on the victor airways was a nice alternative to having to just land and wait out the outage.

When you lost GPS, fair to assume you also lost DME? Can you expand on how you navigated an airway without DME? Did the G1000 dead reckoning come into play? Did you use two VORs to get a fix?

I flew for decades flying all over sans GPS or DME. I can't recall a single plane I flew that had a DME unit in it.

[Boatguy]

That is an extremely bad idea. I have been without my GPS three times in a dozen years and knowing how to tune the nav radio and find my way on the victor airways was a nice alternative to having to just land and wait out the outage.

When you lost GPS, fair to assume you also lost DME? Can you expand on how you navigated an airway without DME? Did the G1000 dead reckoning come into play? Did you use two VORs to get a fix?

I flew for decades flying all over sans GPS or DME. I can't recall a single plane I flew that had a DME unit in it.

And you were flying IFR?

[Rich]

When you lost GPS, fair to assume you also lost DME? Can you expand on how you navigated an airway without DME? Did the G1000 dead reckoning come into play? Did you use two VORs to get a fix?

I flew for decades flying all over sans GPS or DME. I can't recall a single plane I flew that had a DME unit in it.

And you were flying IFR?

Sometimes. DME wasn't widely installed in aircraft when I got my Instrument Rating. And for years thereafter many VORs were not VORTACs. It's a headache, for sure, but doable.

[Colin]

I did not have DME. I am not sure there are any North American DA40s that have the DME equipment installed.

I tuned in a VOR and intercepted a nearby victor airway, I was VFR so it was not difficult to read the chart, look out the window and understand where I was. When I passed the VOR I adjust the nav radio so that I was continuing on another victor airway.

[ememic99]

Thanks for the heads up. Do you mind post a picture of the soft keys you see on your PFD? I’m trying To figure out if your aircraft has the dedicated DME unit or not ?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Bryan, almost certainly my aircraft (2008 XLS) does not have a DME unit installed... and aside from widespread GPS outage as Russ describes (of the government-run system itself, as we all fly with several backups to the in-panel avionics), I personally see ZERO reason to have an actual DME unit.
My aircraft is in the shop (new prop finally installed, awaiting full annual signoff), so the screen image I posted was from my home sim.
Wayne

Got the DME info showed up on the PFD.



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This is not DME; this is GPS distance from particular navaid which is not the same.

[CFIDave]

"DME" is distance measuring EQUIPMENT hardware that uses signals from some VOR/DME navaids to measure distance to the VOR. It's a popular OPTION in European Diamonds since it's required equipment in some countries (Germany?), and is turned on via a separate softkey on the G1000 PFD. But (along with ADFs) it's very rare to find in North American Diamonds unless the aircraft was originally owned by a European operator and then imported.

In contrast, pilots sometimes refer to "DME distance" -- which can be measured by the G1000's GPS as a substitute for hardware DME (as shown in the photo above).