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Airliners and Weather

xj220

Will fly for food.
pilot
Contributor
For those of you on the commercial side of things, especially anyone that does long haul international flights, I have some questions about how you guys handle severe weather. Where I'm at right now, there are a lot of thunderstorms and it seems like everytime we go out, there are SIGMETS all over the place for isolated embedded CBs with tops of 520. Obviously nasty stuff and when you look on SkyVector, you see large swaths of massive clouds that go way higher than any airliner is capable of doing. Yet, I look on flight trackers and it seems like commercial aircraft are trucking right along as if they don't exist, or are at least able to find their way through. We have a radar on board that does a decent job of helping us pick our way through, but some of these storms look massive. How do you guys handle SIGMETS and severe weather, especially outside of a radar environment? Thanks for any help.
 

Treetop Flyer

Well-Known Member
pilot
For those of you on the commercial side of things, especially anyone that does long haul international flights, I have some questions about how you guys handle severe weather. Where I'm at right now, there are a lot of thunderstorms and it seems like everytime we go out, there are SIGMETS all over the place for isolated embedded CBs with tops of 520. Obviously nasty stuff and when you look on SkyVector, you see large swaths of massive clouds that go way higher than any airliner is capable of doing. Yet, I look on flight trackers and it seems like commercial aircraft are trucking right along as if they don't exist, or are at least able to find their way through. We have a radar on board that does a decent job of helping us pick our way through, but some of these storms look massive. How do you guys handle SIGMETS and severe weather, especially outside of a radar environment? Thanks for any help.
Fly around or above cells. Good radar, eyeballs, and communication with ATC go a long way. I can’t help with non-radar environment since I don’t do that, but I’m guessing it’s two of three.
 

picklesuit

Dirty Hinge
pilot
Contributor
@HAL Pilot and I were just discussing this elsewhere...their CWR is much better than ours, and is actually designed for interface with the pilot. Our bastardized version, which basically piggy-backs the APY-10 and processes the Navigation return and makes pretty colors, is overly sensitive.

Trust your SS-3, use the RADAR as it was designed (with raw returns and proper tilt), and all will be fine.
 

picklesuit

Dirty Hinge
pilot
Contributor
Also, don’t use Skyvector for weather planning. Another place that is overly sensitive with their returns and displays (“the sky is falling”) that will put what I consider bad input into the discussion.
 

Brett327

Well-Known Member
None
Super Moderator
Contributor
@HAL Pilot and I were just discussing this elsewhere...their CWR is much better than ours, and is actually designed for interface with the pilot. Our bastardized version, which basically piggy-backs the APY-10 and processes the Navigation return and makes pretty colors, is overly sensitive.

Trust your SS-3, use the RADAR as it was designed (with raw returns and proper tilt), and all will be fine.
Do P-8s still use the SS1, SS2, SS3 construct?
 

xj220

Will fly for food.
pilot
Contributor
Good stuff, thanks. Yeah, ours isn’t great but works. I figured ours was less sensitive and more likely to “burn” through, but I’m not a radar guy. I’ve definiteky seen buildup with no returns though so it makes me cautious.
 

picklesuit

Dirty Hinge
pilot
Contributor
Do P-8s still use the SS1, SS2, SS3 construct?
Ish...SS-1/2 are still acoustic and SS-3/4 are EWO. I’ve heard them used interchangeably, but I still call Jez “SS-1” or “Jez” and either EWO “SS-3”...

If I refer to any of the others or all of them it’s either “Nerd” or “Nerds”...
 

wink

War Hoover NFO.
None
Super Moderator
Contributor
Major airlines also have significant resources in planning the Navy and General Aviation don't. First they have dedicated no shit meteorologists working in dispatch. They have powerful computer programs that do a fair job of picking routes and predicting convective action. And most of the planes today have sensors that automatically send pirep info to dispatch (and mx). That gives the airline many more data points from actual encounters with the weather system then you get from NOTAMs. Bigger the airline the more fidelity. In the end, as stated, the onboard radar is awesome. Just use your best judgement. These days a mistake in judgement regarding weather avoidance results in a rougher ride than desirable, not disaster.
 
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