Stormscope vs. wx radar
 

I flew recently with a new f/o who had little experience in using and interpreting the weather radar correctly. Unfortunately, the plane we flew that day also had a WX 1000 stormscope installed. He paid much more attention to the WX 1000 than the radar (I am talking about a good unit here - B/K RDR 2000 with VP).

Does anybody here know a website or any other publication that precisely describes the principle and limitations of the stormscope. The operation manual supplied isn't worth a dam^.

I just don't want to see certain people freaking out because they see some returns on that WX1000. There must be a good reason why air carrier operators and top-of-line business aircraft are lacking stormscopes.

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There's www.bfgavionics.com but their pdf. guides may not be more than you have already.

There is a good reason why air carrier operators and top-of-line business aircraft are lacking stormscopes. Weather radar was perfected first, and mandated in various country's legislation.

If you have to fit a WX radar by law, why bother with a stormscope as well?

The all-time guru of weather radar has to be Archie Trammel. Get a hold of one of his videos or try a net search, you will surely find something useful!

If you are going to search, try a Tech Log search first!

Calculating cloud heights with radar?
X band radar tips?
Terminal Area Weather Radar Technique (which talks about Archie's bourse)

From memory (it's more than 10 years since I worked on an aircraft with a Stormscope) but it is, in effect, a 10(?) Mhz ADF that detects the fields from lightning strikes. The original Ryan/3M Stormscope gave finer detail than the Honeywell version but the larger symbols of Brand H made assimilating the data/avoiding the strikes easier.
The range display effectively also changes the wash-out filter on the display such that you see only the latest strikes or an appopriate number for the scale.
Again this is from memory but may be of help.

Checkboard & Dockjock, thank you for your replies. I have the Archie Tremmel videos, and I can only recommend it.

As far as the stormscope goes, I find it annoying that most pilots coming from GA, pay too much attention to scormscopes and lack the knowledge of properly interpreting weather radar returns. BTW does anybody know if Archie Tremmel or someone else has additional information on radars equipped with vertical profile?

Thanks again to all of you.

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