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Old 4th Jun 2009, 04:44
  #817 (permalink)  
DanAir1-11
 
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: Amidst the dust and the flies, somewhere in Western Australia
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Having been out of 'the game' for quite a while, and having only ever operated 'older' types, I am not au-fait with the types of wx radar currently in use. An issue that we used to endure with the old 3cm band and to a lesser degree the 5cm band was that if attenuation due to precip was sufficiently great, it generated a contour hole or suckers gap on the display by effectively supressing the return from any convective cells immediately behind the area of high precip and thus potentially lulling the uninitiated into a false sense of security.

Has modern equipment eliminated or reduced this phenomena?

I ask only simply because with avoidance being the name of the game, there would surely be some mitigating factor why (IF in fact they did) the crew attempted to traverse a CB? The obvious reason could be that they simply couldn't see it? There will be a myriad reasons as to how one could lose wx radar, and I am not at all qualified to speculate re the electrical side of what could possibly go awry, but would appreciate a head's up from those significantly more informed than myself.
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