Tower asks for DME to the airport
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- foresterpoole
- Posts: 307
- Joined: Thu Sep 22, 2016 12:28 pm
- Location: Alexandria, LA
Tower asks for DME to the airport
Finished a X-county up to KMLU (Monroe, LA) today and got an inquiry from the tower I was not prepared for. The controller asked me for my DME distance from the airport. Kind of threw me for a loop since the DME in the Cessna I'm flying is InOp and while I know how to use it I never expected anyone to ask. I simply replied with a GPS distance, which she gave a number close but not what I had. I was on a visual approach, about a 5 mile final cleared to land. It was busy. Is this something commonly asked for on a visual approach????
Ed
Re: Tower asks for DME to the airport
It's not unusual for a tower controller to ask your distance from the airport to help in sequencing. If they specifically asked for DME, I would simply respond, "negative DME, I'm 5 nm out," or something to that effect. It would not be unusual to ask for DME distance since there is a colocated VOR on the airport.foresterpoole wrote:Finished a X-county up to KMLU (Monroe, LA) today and got an inquiry from the tower I was not prepared for. The controller asked me for my DME distance from the airport. Kind of threw me for a loop since the DME in the Cessna I'm flying is InOp and while I know how to use it I never expected anyone to ask. I simply replied with a GPS distance, which she gave a number close but not what I had. I was on a visual approach, about a 5 mile final cleared to land. It was busy. Is this something commonly asked for on a visual approach????
EDIT: If you file a flight plan, don't use the DME annotation if your DME is inop.
Last edited by TimTaylor on Sat Oct 14, 2017 12:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Retired from flying.
Re: Tower asks for DME to the airport
When you say you “replied with a GPS distance, which she gave a number close” kinda makes you wonder why she asked in the first place.foresterpoole wrote:Finished a X-county up to KMLU (Monroe, LA) today and got an inquiry from the tower I was not prepared for. The controller asked me for my DME distance from the airport. Kind of threw me for a loop since the DME in the Cessna I'm flying is InOp and while I know how to use it I never expected anyone to ask. I simply replied with a GPS distance, which she gave a number close but not what I had. I was on a visual approach, about a 5 mile final cleared to land. It was busy. Is this something commonly asked for on a visual approach????
Perhaps she wanted to know what your distance was to the field although perhaps she knew since she gave you a number. Controllers are used to DME (as opposed to asking for GPS) but if it had been me I would have replied I don’t have DME but my GPS is————.
If you’re not sure then ask. Some controllers can get testy. I had one that said report 4 mile final and got testy when at 6 miles I had not reported. Asked why I replied that I’m currently at six miles on final and he said report 4 to which he says I show you closer. So...why are you asking and why are you arguing if you already know?
Sometimes they can ask as a way of separating traffic or catching you in a neighboring airspace.