Originally Posted by
80ktsClamp
I've never seen one accidentally left on, but I'm sure it's happened.
The "danger" zone of the radar is only 2-3 feet in front of the aircraft as modern radars are only about 25 watts. Also, when we're dow low (approach/departure) or on the ground it's tilted several degrees up to get a better look at the weather.
I.E., your flashlight and batteries are perfectly safe, if you know what I mean.
On some aircraft with predictive windshear, as long as one engine is running, the radar is radiating and you don't even know it. After years of being careful about personel close to the radome, when I bought this up during recurrent, I was told " it doesn't matter anymore". Granted, the habit was ingrained with the older, much more powerful radars.