Problems with Jungle Jet Radar

[fr8trash]

I have been flying checks and urine samples in my 310 and just wish there was a radar in my airplane. The bruises on my hips from going through storms last week in the STL area hurt today.

 

[tdvalve]

'The ERJ's pointy schnozz can only fit a 12" dish, compared with a 16" or larger dish on the CRJ and the larger turboprops. '

12" dish seems to work fine in the Lears and Citations.

 

[profile]

The smaller dish works ok for smaller ranges. Even with our 30" dish the resolution beyond 80 miles isn't very good (and that applies to all 30" dish radars, not just in the airplane I fly, which is better than most of the others I've flown in this regard). While I can start planning for wx avoidance 100 miles or more out with fair accuracy, the small dish will have to wait until 30 miles or less to get the same resolution.

 

[tdvalve]

No doubt the bigger the better on dish sizes. I seldom try to paint beyond 50 miles with a 12 incher but occasionally look out to 100 miles. While the resolution is not that great, useful info can be obtained beyond 50 miles. Can't imagine why the EMB won't paint cells when above 350.

 

[surplus1]

Tdv and profile,

We're on the same page with this one. I don't understand the relevance of the altitude and there are lots's of 12" dishes that do just fine.

I'm wondering now what if anything the avionics dept. is doing to fine tune these radars and maintain the domes.

There's something more than dish size and FL in this equation.

 

[TWA Dude]

To All:

Thanks for the reports. I'm passing on the info to my friend that he's not the only one experiencing problems.

While dish size is important it can't explain why close-by cells aren't showing up while flying at high altitudes. Keem them NASA reports comin'.

 

[eaglefly]

Lears, citations and EMB-120's don't take lightning strikes like the 135/140/145 series. I firmly believe the BIGGEST culprit involving this A/C's poor radar performance is that big ball of static electricity at the nose.

 

[profile]

Sounds to me like the radome is the most probable culprit. Would be interesting to learn more about this. If someone here who has experienced this could send me some detailed info in a private message, the exact model number of aircraft, type of radar installed, altitudes, distance, location of occurences, I think I can get it to the right folks to look into the situation. Are you an ALPA carrier? If so, include that info as well. There may be a way to fix this.