Gentlemen:
Airbus has in their series, "Getting to Grips", Flight Operations Briefing Notes entitled, "Optimum Use of the Weather RADAR." It affirms much of what has been said by you guys in this thread.
Further, Airbus also has a really nice powerpoint presentation. My old airline showed this during one of the recurrent training sessions. It was so interesting and well-presented, that most of the guys put down their newspapers and crossword puzzles to watch.
I don't know how to obtain this powerpoint package. I guess a call or an e-mail to Airbus would do the trick.
I really enjoy these discussions...
PantLoad