Work that angle!
Like our life depended upon it.
And apologies for my earlier post with a few mistakes...firstly, the original post is titled approach and landing...I covered the entire flight regime! Ha! And the ranges were mis-typed...on the 80 mile range, with a -2 degree, if a return passes inside of approximately 50 miles, I consider it a threat to be avoided. With a sighting on a regular interval out to 160 with a -1 degree. And when in battle, I vary the gain from auto to full to min with varying angles to get the best picture I can, whilst keeping a good look outside for those helpful flashes and momentary visuals which are godsends! Especially at night.
As for determining the ground return, studying the returns at various angles will give you the best solution, keeping in mind the surrounding terrain you are in...hopefully you will have some idea...ground return should be rather uniform at the same range...if there is a lone round-ish or scalloped return all by itself, it is either a mountain or a build up...both to be avoided.
It is definitely a continual learning process! Again, I suggest using the radar when it is cavok to get familiar with your base's ground returns at various angles and approaches.