Featuring:
John Dow1 as Super Pilot E.E (Extremely Experienced) Flew almost any thing with wings except Mosquitoes, Flies, Butterflies, and Birds
John Dow 2 as Super Engineer E.K (Extremely Knowledgeable) Always wanted to be a Pilot, but Dad and Mom said no (or failed the medical)
4 3 2 1
Thunderstorm as CB (the Bad Guy) Radar Beam and its Energy level legend as Beam Width H2+ OH2O as Water in liquid and/or solid state
Radar Switch as
SYSOFF
ECP as Range
A330 as SUPERTOY flown by Super Pilot E.E who thinks he is handling it very smoothly and very precisely
Flight Computers s FMGECSECELACPRIMS flying the SUPERTOY while Super Pilot EE thinks he is handling.
MCDU as FMS2 used by Super Pilot EE to do everything he cannot do anymore such as navigating , calculating trajectories estimates, and fuel consumption
The scene as the Sky where Super Pilot flies SUPERTOY ,convinced that he is handlingBut forgot that he was created without wings
Honeywell as
RDR 4 B
Featuring: .................................................................. 2 Introduction:............................................................... 6 Airplanes, thunderstorms, and some tips... .....................................................6 Tip 1.......................................................................................................................6 Tip 2......................................................................................................................6 Tip 3......................................................................................................................7 First thing first, a little bit of theory .................................. 7 How can Radar detect the clouds?....................................................................7 The radar antenna tilt ......................................................................................8 How thick is the slice? ...................................................................................10 Lets look at the beam (again) ...........................................................................11 Beam width Cross Section Diameter versus Distance............................11 Tilt Angle, Cloud top ...........................................................................................11 Tilt up .................................................................................................................11 Tilt down ............................................................................................................11 By the way, what is The Gain? ..........................................................................12 The Clouds ............................................................... 13 Where is the water in liquid form in the cloud? ..........................................13 For the Radar, what type of look the cloud has?.........................................13 For the Display how the clouds will look like? ..........................................15 Clouds and reflectivity .......................................................................................15 Reference Thunderstorm ..................................................................................17 What and where is the Bright Band?..............................................................18 Bright Band associated with Thunderstorms ...........................................18 Bright Band associated with Stratiform Clouds ......................................18 Among other stuff Shadows, and attenuations............................................19 Mountains Shadowing......................................................................................19 Cloud shadowing caused by attenuation .....................................................20 The last but not least, the earth curvature .................................................21 Radar Radiation and Children............................................................................22 Lets apply the Theory to use the WX Radar ......................... 23 Tilt Angle, Cloud top, Relative Cloud Height .................................................23 Tilt up .................................................................................................................23 Tilt down ............................................................................................................23 Relative Cloud Height .........................................................................................23 Example:.............................................................................................................23 Lets acquire a Target.....................................................................................24 Step1...................................................................................................................24 Step2 ..................................................................................................................25 Step3 ..................................................................................................................25 Now that we have a target, what is next? ....................................................26 Which way to go?.............................................................................................26 The Avoidance Procedure ..............................................................................26 ATC Communication .........................................................................................26
This is not e genuine For Dummies EDITION Or PUBLICATION,
Actions to be taken if a revised air traffic control Clearance cannot be obtained .................................................................................................................27 Storms, Shapes any few things to remember ......................... 28 Normal Storm .......................................................................................................28 Storm with specific shapes...............................................................................28 Avoid any target with a dry intrusion.........................................................29 Avoid any target with a hook or bow shape...............................................29 Avoid any target with protruding "fingers." .............................................30 Avoid any target with an asymmetric colouring and shapes..................30 Avoid any target with an "arrow shape."....................................................31 Avoid any target with scalloped edges. ......................................................31 Turbulence Mode: ....................................................... 32 Settings to remember ................................................... 33 Did we talk about lightning? ............................................ 34 What is This? ........................................................... 35 What is that? ........................................................... 36
Introduction:
Airplanes, thunderstorms, and some tips...
Thunderstorms are made of unacceptable environmental hazards to aviation." In other words avoid thunderstorms while flying your plane.
Tip 1
Open your eyes and look out of the window if there are any unusually shaped things with strong flashing lights. There is Nothing
Tip 2
Look in the weather radar.
There is Nothing
Tip 3
Switch the Radar ON and learn how to use it.
When water is in its liquid state, the poles of the water molecules (H2+ O-) are able to change orientation, responding to the Radar pulses, thus able to align, and reflect a significant amount of radar energy. Whereas iced water molecules are locked in a random spatial orientation, unable, to change, to respond, to and to reflect radar energy. If you dont trust me, remember your micro wave oven, the water boils very quickly, whereas it takes ages to heat up the frozen food, your wife prepared for you before you sent her and the kids for the 2 months summer vacation
It is cone shaped, with different levels of energy from the center to the edge of the beam. Energy Distribution: 60% 91.3% 99.9%
98.4%
Angle 1+2 is often referred as the weather detection beam width, and/or as the beam width of the antenna. Angle 1+2 value depends upon the antenna radius: A 30-inch antenna gives 3.0 degrees, A 24-inch antenna gives 4.5 degrees A 12-inch it gives 8.0 degrees. Angle 3+ 4, forming the outer edge of the cone that will unfortunately produce the unwanted ground clutter.
This is correct; in fact the CENTER of the beam is referenced and maintained to the EARTHS HORIZON, using ADIRS inputs
So this is why we set manually the Tilt to 4 for Takeoff Climb Descent
Yes it is to display Weather ahead and to detect Wet Wind Shear along your Flight Path
The Radar beam slices the sky, like Darth Vader with its Laser Saber
While the following formula can be used to calculate the approximate beam width (Cross Section) at any range: Beam width (in feet) = Distance in NM X 350 Or = (Distance in NM + 00) x 3.5 And If you like formulas, get that: Beam Width (in Degrees) = 70 X Wavelength /Antenna
When the Tilt is at Zero it is the center of the beam that is at zero, so I have to consider the beam width.
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The Gain IS NOT amplifying the TX and/or the RX signals, sensitivity, output, input
The term Antenna Gain describes how much the energy leaving the antenna is focused into a particular direction, ANTENNA GAIN = FOCUSED INTENSITY AVERAGE INTENSITY
So it is like when I am doing the walk around at night, I have to focus my torch light, in order to see better the cockpit Oxygen and the APU fire extinguisher
Absolutely, but remember Manual Gain SHOULD be used for thunderstorm and/or terrain analyses. When the analyse is completed return it to AUTO
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The Clouds
Where is the water in liquid form in the cloud?
Where is the water in liquid form?
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Then the Video Integration Processor (Image processor) applies the following rule
It is obvious that the cloud is bigger than what the Radar sees
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No, because, as you can imagine each raindrop scatters some of the incoming signal into random directions. Some of this scattered energy will be returned to the radar. However most of it will simply be lost.
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Furthermore, the reflectivity will vary within the cloud. This is due to the water/ice distribution
The bottom of the CB below the freezing level and is composed entirely of water, thus providing the Best reflectivity.
The top of the storm is entirely composed of ice crystals It is almost invisible to radar.
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Reference Thunderstorm
In order to be able to calibrate weather radar systems, the industry needed to have a reference thunderstorm. After years of studies, and thunderstorm-size evaluation, they decided that the following storm model would be appropriate:
A sphere with a 3NM Radius, filled with liquid water drops having the same dimension.
Hold on, such a sphere will not fill the Radar Beam beyond 80 NM.
green at longer ranges but steadily grow in intensity until they turn red when close
to the aircraft, by the way the industry calls it beam filling
And this is why you should learn to calibrate the Radar, and what follows will help you big time
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As the Beam cannot go through the mountain there is a black area extending beyond it, we call it mountain shadow, if you have the EGPWS use the PIC mode with the same range to confirm it, or use your chart, and/or have a look at the MORA. But remember that CITIES dont have shadows
Also, have a look at mountain shadow orientation versus the wind; remember if the wind is at 90, with instability (look at your SIGMET chart) Then look out for standing mountain waves, they can extend for several 100s NM, watch for pitch increase/decrease with IAS increase/decrease, look out for Lenticular and Rotor clouds
This is not e genuine For Dummies EDITION Or PUBLICATION,
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Regardless of its origin, i.e., mountain or thunderstorm, a Radar shadow is a very serious matter and is to be treated with respect, furthermore as far as cloud shadow is concerned NEVER FLY IN IT
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This is why weather detection at high ranges is not possible, the radar beam will always be above the clouds and massive ground clutter will occur
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The Maximum Permissible Exposure Level (MPEL) area is illustrated below, and as long as you are outside the area you are protected for Max Exposure, please note that the Cockpit is not in the area, Babys sex is more a mother nature story than a Radar Radiation Story.
You can get further details reading FAA Advisory Circular 20-68B
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Tilt up
Example:
Tilt Angle = 3.5 Up Beam Width = 8 Range= 45 NM Aircraft Flight Level 350 Cloud Top Elevation Angle =3.5- 4 =-.5 Relative Cloud Height = -.5 X 45 X 6080 60 Cloud top = 35000 - 2280 = 32720 Feet =- 2280 Feet
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Step1
Lets compute the Tilt angle needed to scan the bright band, considering that we are cruising at FL380 the bright band top will be 23000 feet below, and the bright band bottom will be 31000 feet below. Tilt angle top = bright band top X 60 Range X 6080 Tilt angle bottom = bright band bottom X 60 Range X 6080 Tilt angle top = 23000X60 = 5 45X6080 Tilt angle Bottom = 31000X60 = 6.8 45X6080
Lower the tilt angle to the above value accepting ground clutter, bearing in mind that the terrain elevation below the airplane, will interfere. In order to assess it we can use the MORA value displayed on the ND, if it is the case than we will need to use to tilt angle equal to the Top of the Bright Band.
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Step2
Adjust the tilt angle upwards until you start to loose the weather target strength, because you are partially scanning the bright band
Step3
Lower the tilt in order to re-maximize the weather target while accepting only ground clutter close to but ahead of the weather target, when this is done you have optimized the tilt.
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ATC Communication
As per ICAO Procedure, a rapid response may be obtained by stating "WEATHER DEVIATION REQUIRED" to indicate that priority is desired on the frequency, please note that the pilot still retain the option of initiating the communications using the urgency call "PAN PAN PAN PAN PAN PAN " to alert all listening parties to a special handling condition, which may receive ATC priority for issuance of a clearance or assistance.
When communication is established, the pilot shall notify ATC and request clearance to deviate from track, and, when possible, the extent of the deviation expected.
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2)
3)
4)
When the aircraft is approximately 19 km (10NM) from track, initiate a level change based on the following criteria: Deviations > 19 km (10 NM) LEFT RIGHT LEFT RIGHT Level change
Route centre line track EAST 000-179 magnetic WEST 180-359 magnetic
5) 6)
Continue to attempt to contact ATC to obtain a clearance. When returning to track, be at its assigned flight level, when the aircraft is within approximately 19 km (10NM) of centre line.
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(Dryer air being sucked into the thunderstorm) giving it a V or U shape. There are several reasons for this. Severe thunderstorms have dry air mixing in the middle altitudes which can create an intrusion. Hail rising and descending in a thunderstorm would also appear as a missing area cutout from the storm.
Hook shapes are indicative of rotations taking place within severe thunderstorms. This is a strong clue to ground weather observers that hail and tornadoes are possible.
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Like a hook, a finger shows strong possibilities for tornadoes and hail.
Remember, severe storms created by wind-shear aloft will tilt to one side. This gives shapes and colourings that are not even or concentric.
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Again, this is indicative of a storm with tilt and the possibility of severe hazardous weather.
Scalloped edges show turbulent motions taking place within the cloud. There is a good chance for hail here also.
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Avoid any target with changing shapes. Rapidly growing shapes show rapid motions taking place within the cloud. Turbulence will almost always take place under these conditions. Avoid any target storm with a few VIP (Colour) Level
1 dots showing nearby. Hail falls many times outside of the thunderstorm. Checking the winds at altitude and correlating it to the side of the storm that hail will fall should help identify that potential hazard.
Turbulence Mode:
This mode is used to display area of turbulence within the cloud cells, if any it will be coloured in magenta. On the Radar control panel select TURB on the EFC select 40 NM as the range, adjust the tilt for the new range. Red and Magenta targets should be avoided.
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If a higher range is selected, turbulence will be displayed on the first 40 NM, then only weather will be shown beyond 40 NM
Settings to remember
Always Keep a range on one ND higher than the other ND to see what is coming next
80 NM is the Range to use for weather detection 40 NM is the Range for Turbulence mode If Strato-cumulus and Thunderstorm are embedded, than use the Manual Gain to get ride of the RED OUT generated by the stratiform clouds, by increasing slowly the Gain until the storm cells appears.
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What is This?
This is a picture taken by a First Officer during a flight in the Far East; we can see a part of the Typhoon they found themselves into simply because the Radar was fully dimmed on both NDs And someone did not look at the Sigmet
This is not e genuine For Dummies EDITION Or PUBLICATION,
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What is that?
Happy Landing
No it is not cosmic radiation No it is not a Radar defect No it is not a Display defect No it is not a Laser Beam No it is not a UFO It is a Radar Jamming exercise conducted by the military at your expenses.
HAPPY LANDING
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