Rockwell Collins WR2100 Weather Radar

[Netset]

I have a question with regards to inflight usage of the Rockwell radar re: Airbus fleet.

To state at once, I am not very impressed with its performance, especially when using the auto tilt. On the Boeing 737 we used the Bendix King and it was extremely reliable.

Just in case I'm doing something wrong, at say FL390 what tilt do you use in CAL mode? I tend to use a tilt of between -3 to -5 with a range of 80nm. At times, mainly during the day, I can see a well developed CB at our level and the only return we get is just a little patch of green.

Thanks in advance for any feedback on the matter

[strmchs]

You should use the simplest formula to remember. That is the range X tilt and add two zeros. For example, if you see a wx return at 100nm and you add 2 zeros to that figure it would be 10,000'. That means that moving the antenna down 1 degree would result in the beam center being down 10,000'. If you are at FL 390 and you select 1 degree down that would place your beam center at FL290. You are concerned with the center of the beam as this is where all the energy is and is also where you should place it when examining wx targets. Keep in mind that as you close on the target you must continue to lower the antenna to place the beam center where the water is. In the midlatitudes of the U.S. that would be FL180- 250. Thats where you will see rain, wet hail and wet snow. The magenta color on your radar represents 2" of rainfall an hour and you should always consider that color to be convective in nature.Additionally, you should also keep in mind that as you go further north or south towards the poles, wx returns can be intense due to the trop being lower. A storm in Alaska with a lower top can be quite severe. There are other formulas that you can use, but this is the easiest to remember. The good thing for you is Collins did considerable research with the Multiscan and you really dont have to worry about you geographic location as the radar knows the lat/long and should postion the antenna correctly for you. All you have to do is turn it on. It has certified turbulence detection out to 40nm, can see out to 320 nm, will remove the ground clutter, and has predictive windshear. I wish Id have had this on the 75/76 that I flew. Collins actually converted a BBj and went out and did extensve research with meteorologists. Your radar will present the correct display and knows where you are in space and where to position the antenna whether over land or water. You have a top of the line radar and there may perhaps be something wrong with the radome and not the radar. NO i dont work for Collins. Does that help you??

[FlightPathOBN]

the website for this product may be of some help, or not...these are pretty new, what FMS are you using?

WXR-2100 (http://www.rockwellcollins.com/sitecore/content/Data/Products/Radar_and_Surveillance/Weather_Radar/WXR-2100_Weather_Radar_System.aspx)

[airyana]

the wxr 2100 is a multiscan weather radar, when used in auto mode the -2 degrees displayed is actually the the average between the upper and lower beams, it uses postion data from the aircraft IRS, that influences the returns you get on your screen, for example a landmass CB over central Africa, will be displayed differently to an identical CB say over the atlantic, only in Cal gain and auto mode do you benifit from the great features like PAC alert and over flt protection and so on, I recommend a course available on the king schools website covering the features and operation of the wxr-2100, I hope this helps!