Originally Posted by
pilot and apprentice
..Yes, the radar should have been painting a return but I am reminded that radar does not paint vertically. A shoal and a cliff can appear the same and we can easily see what we expect to see...
The radar still provides useful information to determine a shoal from a cliff. With antenna tilt adjustments a shoal will be surrounded by sea clutter, and it will be painted with some depth. A cliff will be painted with virtually no depth, and nothing but black behind it. It's that black area immediately behind a strong return with little depth that should set off alarm bells in the mind. Same applies for weather interpretation.