Dash 8-100
Situational Awareness
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural FAR; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
General Maintenance Action
Human Factors; Procedure
I operated two flights without realizing our RNAV database was expired. I did not realize until we were contacted by Dispatch; post-flight going on to our 3rd leg; and told to MEL the navigation unit. We were told to call Dispatch who told us that the database was expired; fleet wide in the DH8 fleet. Maintenance missed the navigation database update and the flight crew failed to verify it. Also; with only having 1 RNAV unit in the aircraft and it being located right next to the Captain; First Officers usually feel left out of the loop. Since it is next to the Captain they are nearly always initializing it; programming it; etc. I never even had a chance to see the expired database during the initialization process because the Captain had already set up the unit while I was performing my preflight inspection duties. The navigation unit was MEL'd and we conducted the return flight without RNAV capability. Dispatch and/or Maintenance should have some type of alert that the RNAV database has expired. In fact; the alert should occur a day or two before the database will actually expire.
The pilot of a DHC 8-100 was advised that the fleet's navigation database expiration date had gone unnoticed and they were required to defer the system per the Minimum Equipment List procedures.