Radio Altimeter on PFD and emergency situation
 

Hi,

can anyone please tell me how I can display the radio altimeter height on the PFD? On the PMDG 737 NGXu it is not displayed by default. Is that a company specific display option? Is there an option somewhere to activate it?

I think it is pretty useful during takeoff when you need to perform actions at certain heights AGL.
Then you dont need to do some math to reckon out the AGL with the baro displayed height.

Eg. on engine failure after V1 you normally need to climb to 400 feet AGL before you activate the heading mode for the FD. With only the baro height being displayed on a 350 feet above ground airport you need to reckon 400+350=750 feet to know when to activate heading mode. That is a little disturbing when the pilot is in an emergency situation.
Or am I understanding something wrong here?

Thanks!

The radalt is always displayed on the PFD below 2500 ft agl. There must be something wrong with your sim programme.
You’re correct in that it is useful when close to the ground, during take-off and landing, but you have to be aware of terrain undulations if you are trying to relate the radio height to the height above the runway, particularly when you are some distance from the airport.

As eckhard mentions it is normally automatically displayed below 2500ft. Never flew either a 737 or A320 where that was not the case. The 737NG has at least two different display option in the PFD, either as a digital (between 2500 and 1000 ft) and round dial (below 1000 ft) in the upper right corner or as a digital readout in the bottom center of the attitude indication area. That said, on the 737 the baro altimeter has quite useful 500 and 1000 ft marks as well, although that could be a customer option.

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....eeae8c6c81.jpg

PMDG 737 NGXu is a Flight Simulator program.

It may not be fully representative of the real aircraft. The OP would be better off contacting the developers with his questions imho.

Not always easy with big corporations - you have to give your details then wait for a reply. They might not reply to a "mere" individual customer.

A lot quicker and easier to ask the folk on Pprune - for all the OP knows, there might be a way of switching the indication onto the PFD.

There is no problem with folk asking questions on the 'Questions' thread !