777fly;
I would be interested to know more about the A330 radar control panel as fitted on this aircraft. Does it have an auto tilt function? If not, failure to reset the tilt manually to a cruise setting at top of climb might have meant that CB radar returns were not seen or correctly presented.
A lot has been said on this and the other two AF447 threads on radar.
Information provided airline crews on radar systems and effective use is at best parsimonious and at worst, ineffective. I wrote about this on the now-locked thread a few days after the accident, wondering if it was as simple as that and all the rest were details.
I'm not sure what you mean by "auto-tilt". In all radar installations I'm familiar with, stabilization is provided by the ADIRS; -at zero tilt the antenna is always oriented to the horizon regardless of pitch attitude.
Typically for those new to it, understanding radar begins with the idea of a flashlight and it's beam width and what it will and won't light up at various distances.
Most FCOM's don't tell crews how to use radar. Many here will know this, but for those who haven't used radar, (from the manufacturer) the beam width for the A320 and A330 is typically 2.84deg, (1.42deg above, and below, center).
One uses the 1:60 rule to determine how far below or above one's FL the returns are and judges passage through a line such as the one seen that night, appropriately. The bottom of the beam at a two-degree down-tilt at 60nm is at 2 x 60 x 100 = 12,000ft below aircraft level,
approximately!, (and the top is about 5000ft above the horizon!)
A 2.84deg beam is always 17,000ft wide at 60nm, (2.84 x 60 x 100), double that at 120nm, and remember the beam is weaker. At zero tilt, one is scanning about 8500ft above and below the horizon. So one has to scan up and down to learn what's ahead.
In other words, one doesn't leave the tilt set but, using the above simple information, scans up and down, using small tilt adjustments and even using manual gain for a few sweeps to understand what's ahead. One knows about blanking, about where turbulence will be found, about what does and does not show up in the returns, etc.
Unless things have changed in the last few years, none of this is taught or even mentioned formally. One has to seek the knowledge out and then put it to use and learn. Dave Gwinn (RIP) had a great course on radar at one time. I know there are others now.