uhh i dont get it...and whats a DME is that like a TRE for airplanes...lol
DME stands for Distance Measuring Equipment. It gives slant range distance to a VOR/DME or VORTAC radio station.
What's VOR you ask? It stands for Very High Frequency Omni Range, which is a radio station that electronically "spins" a signal, along with a reference signal to allow an aircraft with a VOR receiver to determine its position relative to the station. The VORTAC is similar, though the TACAN portion was used by the military. This was a 1930's development (if I recall correctly) still used today...despite the later invention of LORAN.
What's LORAN you ask? LORAN is the acronym for Long Range Aera Navigation. In many ways LORAN can be considered a ground based GPS system. It simplified navigation quite a lot, but never really produced the level of accuracy necessary for non precision approaches to airports. GPS is becoming standard, slowly replacing INS and IRS for navigation.
What's INS and IRS? Inertial Navigation System and Inertial Reference System...systems in which pilots enter a known lat/long coordinate. The aircraft has mechanical gyros or laser gyros that sense every movement of the aircraft and provide position information by compiling all those movements and referencing them to the original known position.
We love our acronyms in the aviation industry. Here are a few more:
ACARS
ILS
NDB
WAAS
SID
STAR
TERPS
NOTAM
PIREP
DG
HSI
CANPA
DH
MDA
NORDO
LOC
GS
VASI
PAPI
MALSF
ALSF
HIRL
REIL
ALS
RCLS
TDZL
IFR
VFR
IMC
VMC
CAVU
HAT
ALD
LLWAS
ATIS
ASOS
AWOS
MU
LAHSO
FSS
FSDO
CHDO
ARTCC
DP
EFC
MEA
MOA
MVA
OROCA
Here's a typical paragraph from the Aeronautical Information Manual:
"A pilot departing VFR, either intending to or needing to obtain an IFR clearance en route, must be aware of the position of the aircraft and the relative terrain/obstructions. When accepting a clearance below the MEA/MIA/MVA/OROCA, pilots are responsible for their own terrain/obstruction clearance until reaching the MEA/MIA/MVA/OROCA. If pilots are unable to maintain terrain/obstruction clearance, the controller should be advised and pilots should state their intentions."