Or if you're already in the clouds and the storms are embedded.
Speaking from the NAVAIR side of things, just how good a radar do you really need to pick your way through storms? I've used an APS-115, APS-130 and now APG-79. None of them are doppler Wx radars, but they're good enough to avoid cells and see the embedded stuff if you tweak them properly and finesse the elevation control.
Not, as far as I know, with reference to oceanic.They’re good but not great and don’t show everything out there. Our community had a mishap regarding weather and it’s not something anyone wants to repeat. I know there’s more to the mishap but more SA is always nice.
Ok, I’m looking at an iPad mini 4 with foreflight pro and possibly and ADS-B receiver or at least a Baf Elf GPS receiver. Is it worth the $1k I’m about to drop? My biggest need is oceanic and not operating on airways but near landmasses. If you catch my drift. Would this work as a worst case back up?
Not, as far as I know, with reference to oceanic.
In this case, yes. I think it is worth it.I guess I should have been more specific. Is it worth it as a backup navigation source?
They’re good but not great and don’t show everything out there. Our community had a mishap regarding weather and it’s not something anyone wants to repeat. I know there’s more to the mishap but more SA is always nice.
Ok, I’m looking at an iPad mini 4 with foreflight pro and possibly and ADS-B receiver or at least a Baf Elf GPS receiver. Is it worth the $1k I’m about to drop? My biggest need is oceanic and not operating on airways but near landmasses. If you catch my drift. Would this work as a worst case back up?
Or if you're already in the clouds and the storms are embedded.
So can you manually tilt/tune radar to optimize for viewing precip? Do you get a full color display? Can you draw a course line around a cell of precip?This is an issue for us on literally every XC ever, and half the flights off the Boat (particularly during workups off the coast of FL).
We are all-weather attack, mainly because we have no idea where the storms are...
So can you manually tilt/tune radar to optimize for viewing precip? Do you get a full color display? Can you draw a course line around a cell of precip?
So can you manually tilt/tune radar to optimize for viewing precip? Do you get a full color display? Can you draw a course line around a cell of precip?
Yes, no, and no. There are modes of the radar which might get returns off precip, or they might not- it depends on a bunch of factors. Bear in mind the F/A-18 radar was designed to be able to see through clouds, so it wouldn't be as effective if it was stopped by every bit of moisture in the sky. (Yes, I realize this is an oversimplification of how radars work). However, the bottom line is that it's not designed as a weather radar, and it doesn't function reliably as one. Qualitatively, I can tell you this is the one area where the older mechanically-scanned radars did a little better than their more modern electronically-scanned offspring, but both are still a far cry from an IFR-certified weather radar when it comes to mapping cells and plotting courses around them.
Our 95% solution is simply to visually remain clear of big buildups as much as we can. Of course, that doesn't help when Mom launches you into the weather because that's the way the wind is blowing from (go figure...)
Don’t forget soft shot Tuesdays...You know it's easy to forget that for you pointy nose dudes trying to drop kinetic doom on our adversaries, in addition to the bad guys shooting back, you still have to deal with all the normal deadly wx risks like thunderstorms, convective activity, wind shear, hail, etc.