A ‘Honeywell Primus 701A’ weather radar system was fitted. This system is a high resolution, fully stabilised, high power, digital radar, designed for high resolution weather detection and terrain mapping. The radar manufacturers’ manual includes the following warning:
‘THE SYSTEMS PERFORM ONLY THE FUNCTIONS OF WEATHER DETECTION OR MAPPING. IT SHOULD NOT BE USED OR RELIED UPON FOR PROXIMITY WARNING OR ANTI-COLLISION PROTECTION’.
Are the implications of this statement more wide reaching than SAR? As someone who has never flown offshore ARAs, is the weather radar performing a purely ‘terrain mapping’ function during an ARA, i.e. confirmatory position information for the rig location, rather than proximity warning or anti-collision protection? I had always assumed, perhaps incorrectly, that it was used to ensure the path was clear on final approach track to the decision point (and thereby performing an anti-collision function), and also was also used to provide essential proximity information on which the decision point was based.