Radar training is non existent and in my view is left up to the individual on the day to use whatever experience they may have using their own set.
I recently did a flight down the Eastern Adriatic in day time. The cells were well separated and with the radar in calibrated gain on range 120 miles it was showing only a very small green return on the route we were taking(probably only a couple of pixels).When I turned the gain to max it painted a large area of green and yellow.All I could see was high level stratus with no distinctive cummulus shape. We penetrated the area and it was a very smooth passage but at 31000ft and -43 sat we started picking up ice on the wipers for a few minutes.Before I penetrated the area I had swept the picture down to about -2 degrees to make sure there was nothing lurking in the cloud.
I was surprised at the difference between the two images that existed within one click of the gain from calibrated to max.If it had been night time and I had been in calibrated I wouldn't have seen the high level cloud and I probably wouldn't have seen the ice either until it may have had a detrimental effect on my flight.
Since the AF loss I have started to look much lower into a cloud to see what it contains and no longer use calibrated gain except at very short ranges.
Radar training has been very lapse across the industry and needs a serious reappraisal of training given to crews by the regulatory authorities.
Last edited by tubby linton; 23rd June 2009 at 21:22.