What do you set your wx radar to for take off & why ?

[buzzc152]

What tilt and range do you set your wx radar to for departure (let's assume there is cb's in the vicinity). What do your sop's mandate ?

My thinking is to set one side to a very high tilt I.e look up into the very local area to detect cb and storms that might present a windshear hazard. The other side (if your radar lets you do this) can be set to a lower tilt to look further along the departure route.

I was shouted down recently by someone who insisted it should be set and left at 5degree up (he had a 25 mile range display selected) so looking roughly at wx 10,000ft height at 25nm. In my aircraft, given an unrestricted climb, we'd be well above that at 25nm.

Anyway, curious to hear what others are doing.

[Random Route]

The Flight Safety online training recommends 8 degrees up for approach/ departure. In practice it works pretty well.

[SMOC]

+4 for takeoff, +2 at pitch down in acceleration phase +/-0 by 15,000', -2 by CRZ level (Ground returns at around 80nm). However as required to scan once weather is suspected but not normally above those figures.

Reason, it's SOPs it may not be ideal however seeing I've always done it this way it's become habit and a good appreciation of what's weather worth avoiding and what's not is easily spotted. I guess it's consistency that counts in this case rather than continual different settings.

[Denti]

To "AUTO". That way it does a high and a mid high sweep and combines those returns.

[Intruder]

Depends on the airplane and the radar. In the 744 we use +4-5 on takeoff, decreasing to +2 around 20,000'. The 748 has an Auto mode which is recommended for most flight regimes.

I start out in 20 mi range, then increase to 40 or 80 after clean-up.

[King Dong]

Good question.

IMO it is a subject that is very poorly trained, just ask someone to explain the difference between calibrated and uncalibrated gain, most don't have a clue.

[Skyjob]

Set it pointing towards your planned flight path trajectory, your Flight Path Vector (FPV) can assist you in determining that angle, which changes throughout departure until in cruise.

On 737, +5 for departure looks nicely in the area you will be flying into, reducing to 0 or -2 into cruise...

During climb the FPV can be displayed on the NG, thus allowing you to routinely match the weather radar tilt angle to the actual angle achieved in the climb.

During descent, look at 0 to -2 until you find ground returns, then reduce scale to avoid clutter until the approach segment.

During the approach segment, point it back up to +5, ready to look at any weather in the path of a possible missed approach, or for the next departure...

[Manual Reversion]

787.. One on wx+t and one on wx....cos the manual says so. As I discovered a few days ago

[Piltdown Man]

Auto (or about six up), 10 mile range. And if I don't like what I see, I go back to the stand for a nice cup of tea.

[halfofrho]

A320 no auto mode: About 4.5UP for takeoff and the reducing a degree per 10,000ft works well. During cruise about 0.3DN or enough to see ground returns at the top of the map.

[PENKO]

This depends largely on the type of wx radar.
-2 in my present aircraft would be totally impractical in the cruise, however on an older model of the 320 -2 might just as well save your life!

[GlueBall]

I was shouted down recently by someone who insisted it should be set and left at 5degree up (he had a 25 mile range display selected)

As you said, "with CBs in vicinity" of departure airport, I wouldn't be interested in weather 80 miles downrange until AFTER I've circumnavigated the nearby CBs, especially during initial low altitude at 250/260 kts. It's self evident that it's easier to keep distance from CBs when the radar target is larger at 25 miles range than it would be when the target is tiny at 80 mile range.

[what next]

... I was shouted down...Maybe your SOPs then should include "no shouting down of other crewmembers" rather than specifics about WX radar setting ;)

And regarding the question: It very much depends on the aircraft and the radar installed. Your split mode of operating the radar sounds rather smart to me, but interpreting that dual image may require quite some mental capacity in an already high workload situation. I like it more simple (our radar does not offer anything else anyway): 5 degrees pitch up and 25 miles range, making sure that the Nav and TCAS are set to the same range, otherwise it gets totally confusing, for me at least.

[de facto]

My radar gave me an automatic of 9 deg up for take off today,so i guess ill just write to the manufacturer and tell them they re a bunch of :oh: and dont know what they are doing:E

[RAM777]

I was flying an airbus earlier with no auto tilt function so on take off we were keeping it at normally +4 degrees and as we climbed the tilt was gradually reduced to on average -1.5 degrees and for descend it was oppostie.the idea is to set the tilt at an angle that will give u ground returns at the periphery of the radar display.
Tilt setting normally depends upon the range you have set on the radar display,altitude of the aircraft and the terrain surrounding it.
Suppose the radar is displaying weather returns at approximately 80 Nm with a tilt angle of -1.5 degrees with the Radar display range set at 120Nm.So as u will be approaching the storm u will be reducing your radar display range and simultaneously tilting upwards and the position of the weather with respect to the aircraft will be more enhanced ..while using the radar i always have an imaginary cone that is emitting from the nose of the the aircraft and that has helped me in understanding the tilt function though still alot has to be learned.

[wondering]

Honeywell and Airbus have some good WX radar manuals free of charge online.