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ADF and European navigation (merged)

For visiting Europe I wouldn't bother. To be based and possibly selling here, it might be worth adding.

EGTK Oxford

That's offered as an option too, but surprisingly a bit more expensive.

That option probably exists for European customers only, that's why it's more expensive 8-)

LSZK, Switzerland

Makes sense only if you plan to register it in Europe. Other than that: you will never need it. Not woth the (lot of) money.

I don't think an ADF is a lot of money when you are spending over $500,000 on a new aeroplane.

Darley Moor, Gamston (UK)

The short answer is that an ADF is a legal requirement in Europe, for flying NDB approaches, of which there are many, all over the place. Southern Europe has loads but even the UK has plenty of NDBs used in approaches.

In reality people fly them using the GPS (OBS mode usually), and there is no known enforcement. Most SR22s flying in Europe don't have an ADF or DME...

You must have an ADF and DME in a plane used for the EASA IR initial test (in the UK, for sure).

Europe has no US-style GPS substitution rule for ADF etc.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

I don't think an ADF is a lot of money

But it's useless weight and drag you always carry around

LSZK, Switzerland

I fly a Dutch based SR22T and don't have an ADF in it, but do have the DME in it integrated in the Garmin Perspective. All VOR and NDB approaches I fly using a GPS overlay (yes, even the VOR approaches). Might not be perfectly legal, but sure is convenient and more reliable.

EDLE, Netherlands

Personally, I would get DME, but not ADF. If you are talking VFR only, I would get neither.

En-route, this is a no-brainer - real life navigation is using GPS; if that falls over completely (extremely unlikely) you still have 2 VOR receivers. DME would make things easier, but I wouldn't sweat this.

For NDB approaches, using the GPS instead of ADF makes everything better. If you are "hardcore", you can display the GPS as an RMI needle and use the GPS distance in lieu of DME distance and fly it like you would using the ADF, but in practice you just load the procedure from the database or use the OBS mode for the final approach track.

For ILS approaches, using the GPS instead of the DME makes things harder. I believe even in the US you are not allowed to substitute GPS for an DME on an ILS/DME approach, but I might be mistaken. Not a big deal in the US where marker beacons are still extensively used for the distance/altitude check at the OM (I believe), but in Europe there tends to be an altitude check at a DME distance, which is your last chance to catch a badly mis-set altimeter, false glideslope intercept, or frozen GS needle.

Depending on approach coding, actual DME zero-point etc. there are subtle differences between the GPS and DME distances, and before the FAF the GPS reads the distance to the FAF, not the field; so some mental arithmetic is required an you fly distance that are close to, but not the same as in the chart. Not something I want to fiddle with on a final approach.

For the missed approach, you again use the procedure in the GPS; or a RMI needle / OBS mode to replace the ADF.

Biggin Hill

Cobalt: you are dead on. The DME is a nice thing to have for flying the approaches. I have been flying on a SR22TN a few times with no DME and had to substitute the DME by GPS and that is not so nice. The ADF is useless and nobody really cares too much as I am not aware of any Cirrus aircraft flying in Europe that has one.

EDLE, Netherlands

Germany has no requirement for ADF if you do not fly NDB Approaches.

Well, let me put it this way: For ME (!) 7 or 9000 dollars for eqipment i don't need is a lot of money.

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