Navigating to a DME via Garmin when Enroute

bigmo

bigmo

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bigmo
This might be a peculiarity with my (somewhat dated) GNS480 - but it's a stellar unit that I love. When I am crossing our local B to or from my home airport, about 50% of the time I'll get vectors through the B and the other 50% I'll get "proceed direct XXX" with XXX being a DME only fix. The DME is about 1/8 of a mile from the associated airport, so the lazy option is I can select "Nearest", "Airport" and then the associated airport. But to be exact, I should be going right to/from the DME.

If I'm building the flight plan (before takeoff/execute), I can select that DME fix (it shows as a waypoint). But once enroute, there's no way to search for waypoints (at least that I can figure). One option I can do is add it in my flight plans from the beginning and just suspend that leg. It seems dumb to do that. My choices when I select "Nearest" are: airport, VOR, NDB, INT, user, airspace, FSS and ARTCC. It's not in any of those.

This could just be a bit of a bug in the way this GNS categorizes waypoints. Anyone have any workarounds?
 
Don't know about the 480 specifically. Are these DME fixes the same all the time (I'd guess that would be the case), and if so, then make up names and enter the fixes as user waypoints?
 
MauleSkinner said:
What’s a “DME Only” fix?
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I guessed a few things about that but none of them made sense once they said it shows up as a waypoint, in which case, just enter the waypoint.

OTOH, if they mean it’s only defined as 4 DME on the 120 degree radial or course from the airport, but not named, it’s just a matter of creating a user waypoint defined that way. The 480 can definitely do that.

Maybe another one of those questions where the context may provide the answer. What airport? What waypoint?
 
I assume the OP is talking about a DME only facility. Like the GTH DME, for example, which is not a VOR, VORTAC, etc., just a DME. There are quite a few of these as the VOR portions get decommissioned.

I don't know the 480 at all, but why would you be using "Nearest" to search for it, anyway? Can't you just enter the ID ("GTH") in your flight plan?
 
RussR said:
I don't know the 480 at all, but why would you be using "Nearest" to search for it, anyway? Can't you just enter the ID ("GTH") in your flight plan?
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the 480 is the one out there I probably know the least about (didn’t fly enough with one to get that comfortable) but there is very little it can’t do. Heck, it was painting random holds two generations before the GTN and IFD.

Chances are excellent the ID us in its database.
 
bigmo said:
This might be a peculiarity with my (somewhat dated) GNS480 - but it's a stellar unit that I love. When I am crossing our local B to or from my home airport, about 50% of the time I'll get vectors through the B and the other 50% I'll get "proceed direct XXX" with XXX being a DME only fix. The DME is about 1/8 of a mile from the associated airport, so the lazy option is I can select "Nearest", "Airport" and then the associated airport. But to be exact, I should be going right to/from the DME.

If I'm building the flight plan (before takeoff/execute), I can select that DME fix (it shows as a waypoint). But once enroute, there's no way to search for waypoints (at least that I can figure). One option I can do is add it in my flight plans from the beginning and just suspend that leg. It seems dumb to do that. My choices when I select "Nearest" are: airport, VOR, NDB, INT, user, airspace, FSS and ARTCC. It's not in any of those.

This could just be a bit of a bug in the way this GNS categorizes waypoints. Anyone have any workarounds?
Click to expand...
As @Jim Carpenter already mentioned: Any reason why you can't make it a USR waypoint and just save it? Then when you need to recall it, go the USR menu and insert? What's the hold up?
 
bigmo said:
This might be a peculiarity with my (somewhat dated) GNS480 - but it's a stellar unit that I love. When I am crossing our local B to or from my home airport, about 50% of the time I'll get vectors through the B and the other 50% I'll get "proceed direct XXX" with XXX being a DME only fix. The DME is about 1/8 of a mile from the associated airport, so the lazy option is I can select "Nearest", "Airport" and then the associated airport. But to be exact, I should be going right to/from the DME.

If I'm building the flight plan (before takeoff/execute), I can select that DME fix (it shows as a waypoint). But once enroute, there's no way to search for waypoints (at least that I can figure). One option I can do is add it in my flight plans from the beginning and just suspend that leg. It seems dumb to do that. My choices when I select "Nearest" are: airport, VOR, NDB, INT, user, airspace, FSS and ARTCC. It's not in any of those.

This could just be a bit of a bug in the way this GNS categorizes waypoints. Anyone have any workarounds?
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You used XXX as your example. Three letters. That tells me it is not a DME Fix, but a DME. There are stand alone DME’s. They are depicted on the Charts as a Square. Like the VOR/DME symbol but without the ‘stop sign’ inside the square. It seems like you already know that though. I’d think you could go to the Flight Plan page, or the equivalent of it in your 480 and just insert it after the previous Waypoint or before the next one. You being from KALN I’m assuming you are talking about CSX, located on the KSTL airport. Did they clear you Direct Cardinal?
 
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midlifeflyer said:
I guessed a few things about that but none of them made sense once they said it shows up as a waypoint, in which case, just enter the waypoint.

OTOH, if they mean it’s only defined as 4 DME on the 120 degree radial or course from the airport, but not named, it’s just a matter of creating a user waypoint defined that way. The 480 can definitely do that.

Maybe another one of those questions where the context may provide the answer. What airport? What waypoint?
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For what ever reason, when VORs with DME/TACAN are decommissioned, they are not shutting down the DME and they remain charted. I assume this is near military airports.
 
Clip4 said:
For what ever reason, when VORs with DME/TACAN are decommissioned, they are not shutting down the DME and they remain charted. I assume this is near military airports.
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The reason is to support DME/DME/IRU navigation for airplanes with FMSes that support it.
 
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RussR said:
I assume the OP is talking about a DME only facility. Like the GTH DME, for example, which is not a VOR, VORTAC, etc., just a DME. There are quite a few of these as the VOR portions get decommissioned.

I don't know the 480 at all, but why would you be using "Nearest" to search for it, anyway? Can't you just enter the ID ("GTH") in your flight plan?
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No, that's the whole reason I posted. They do not come up when searched once enroute (or more appropriately once a flight plan is activated). Once activated, they are no longer available in the search.
 
flyingron said:
If I'm understanding things correctly, push DIRECT and then the DB key and then select where you want to go.
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Interestingly enough, this works in the simulator with an old out of date database. With a current database (I have the same one loaded in my plane as I do in my sim), you cannot do that. The one I'm referencing is CSX. If I revert to the old 15 year old database - it's good. When I update to my current cycle, it's not available in the database. I looked around, l found about 5-6 DME only NAVAIDS, and they're all the same.

It's like the 480 doesn't have a category to filter them, so it excludes it from a search,

Posted it on the 480 forum (and there's some original designers in there), and they appear to be stumped as well.

It's not an odd occurrence either - this happens weekly to me. YES, I can create a custom waypoint by entering the coordinates, but that's not exactly easy to do while flying the plane.
 
I seem to recall something about them running out of memory for the database and dumping some stations.

By the way, you can mount the CF card for the GNS480 in a card reader on your PC and copy the database file over to the simulator if you want to have a later database in the sim.
 
I have the current one loaded on my sim - that's how I did all the testing to figure out there's a bug.

The space limitation certainly makes sense. If that were the case, you'd think Garmin would be a bit more clear on that. My sloppy on-the-go solution is just navigate to the airfield (assuming there is one) associated with the DME. In this case, it's probably less than 1/6 mile (prob less).

It's a go-to vector for the STL class B controllers, however.
 
I was reading a thread about T routes on another forum. And it seems that the controllers are not always up to date on fixes. Some of the T routes use fixes that are either close to or co-located with a "normal" fix. But the controller will give you a T route with the end being a fix that is not actually part of the T route, but exactly the same location.

After a few pilots tell them their FMS/GPS will not take that route/fix, they figure it out.
 
Well, in its defense, while I have loved my GNS480 since it was installed in 2005 or so, the thing is now over 20 years old. It's mate the MX20 has pretty much been useless for a while if you have weather (it keeps running out of memory and crashing). It was the first WAAS aviation GPS available. Garmin bought it and pretty much ignored it once they raped the guys in Olathe for their WAAS and ADSB knoweldge.
 
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