Airborne weather radar
How airborne weather radar works, how crews use it to keep clear of thunderstorms and windshear, how engineers keep it safe and serviceable, and the rules and standards behind it.
What you will be able to do
- ✓ Explain how a pulsed X-band radar detects precipitation, and why reflectivity, beam width and attenuation shape what the display shows
- ✓ Name the parts of a weather radar system and the equipment and installation standards behind it: TSO-C63f, ETSO-C63f, CS-25 and AMC 25.1309
- ✓ Use tilt, gain, range and modes to read returns, recognise radar shadows and apply recognised avoidance distances
- ✓ Describe predictive windshear, turbulence detection, automatic multiscan modes and ground mapping, and their limits
- ✓ Set out radome care, safe ground operation, built-in testing, the operating rules that require weather radar, and the trends reshaping it
Course content
Session 1 · How weather radar sees
1
- Echoes in the dark · free preview
- What the radar sees: reflectivity
- Beam, range and attenuation
- Worked example: putting the beam on the storm
Session 2 · The system and its standards
2
- The parts of the system
- Equipment standards: TSO-C63 and ETSO-C63
- Installing it: CS-25 and system safety
- Worked example: does the installation meet the major target?
Session 3 · Using weather radar in flight
3
- Tilt, gain and range
- Reading the returns
- Avoiding thunderstorms: distances and rules
- From the investigation file: American 1420, Little Rock, 1999
Session 4 · Windshear, turbulence and automatic modes
4
- Predictive windshear
- Turbulence detection
- Automatic, multiscan and ground mapping
- Worked example: how much time does a predictive alert buy?
Session 5 · Maintenance, testing and what comes next
5
- Caring for the radome
- Testing safely on the ground: BITE and radiation
- Where weather radar is heading
- Worked example: setting the safe distance before a ground test
Who this course is for
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