Comments on: Look for rain or lightning? https://lahso.megginson.com/2005/08/06/look-for-rain-or-lightning/ Flying a small plane. Sat, 06 Aug 2005 14:26:29 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: John https://lahso.megginson.com/2005/08/06/look-for-rain-or-lightning/#comment-199 Sat, 06 Aug 2005 14:26:29 +0000 http://www.megginson.com/blogs/lahso/?p=97#comment-199 On-board radar is nice to have, but it has it’s limitations. One is attenuation, where an area of heavy precip masks an even stronger cell behind it. By far the biggest limitation of my on-board radar is that you only see 20 or so degrees either side of your current path – you don’t see what kind of weather is lurking on your wing tips until you are told to turn that way.

The strikefinder is nice because it is omni-directional, which is a big advantage. I think the ideal setup would be radar, a strikefinder, and XM weather downloads with NEXRAD images. NEXRAD has it’s own set of issues (images can be several minutes old), but it gives you a more complete, 360 degree picture of what’s happening.

I’ve found most U.S. ATC personnel are not really very good at telling you about areas of heavy precip, though they are good at passing on information about turbulence and icing reports made by other pilots.

When I instruct in light aircraft that don’t even have a strikefinder, I’m very conservative in my decision making!

]]>