Originally Posted by 80ktsClamp

The radar in the CRJ was just awful. I always prioritized visual first, then radar and compare notes with ATC.

There were a number of times where I just dropped down to 10,000 or so and visually shimmied my way around. One of those times, I was fat dumb and happy down at 12,000 or so cruising by the waistlines of the storms in smooth air. All my buddies going into the same area either went hundreds of miles around or got the crap kicked out of them.

I was very thankful growing up hearing stories and techniques from the old Southern Airways bubbas at times like that! They have proven themselves over many times though many have either forgotten or never heard the art.

The radars on the Delta fleets are good enough where we can do just fine on our own outside of visual.. and I think the Airbus has the worst one, but it still is better than what was on the CRJ. Regardless.. no excuse to go through an area even if ATC is being obtuse. If we require a vector, I always state that we require that heading, we're not asking.

I'll be interested to see if we hear something about this incident in the coming weeks. I'll never forget at Pinnacle I ended up having to repo a plane that had half the winglet blown off from a lightening strike... I asked the captain what happened. "ATC wouldn't give us the deviation we needed so I went through the cell." Cue wide eyes and facepalm.