Paul,
To be honest, we'll never do a "set it yourself" DG. With a remote magnometer, most customers can get accuracy within a few degrees at all headings. Allowing the user to seperate the DG display from the magnetic heading that we are sensing isn't something that we think would be a safe solution. While we do have a "gyro" inside the EFIS, integrating heading over a long time wouldn't be very accurate. Do a loop, a few uncordinated 720 degree turns, or other agressive manuvers, and we'd be off just as much as a normal DG would. No reason to allow the heading indication to be off that much when you have a perfectly good magnetometer reference.
We have considered doing a "DG" type display, and we hope to add something like this in a future SW release. But it will be slaved to the same gyro-stabilized magnetic heading that we currently display at the top of the screen.
We are sorry to hear that your magnetometer is not working. What problems are you having with it? Do you have a remote compass or an internal compass?
Once it is calibrated, I don't think any of our customers would call it a "pain." It prevents any drift of the heading indication over time which makes flying safer overall.
