No radar will paint a building thunderstorm unless there is some form of precip coming out somewhere in it. The precip is what gives the radar returns. This appears to have been part of the Air France issue. They flew in between to large cells among a line of severe weather. It looks as if there was no precip in that immediate area in front of them, but that is where the worst updrafts would have been.

 

You don't have to be in a thunderstorm to get hit by lightning. A lot of precipitation that paints green contains enough static to create a discharge if your aircraft happens to be oppositly charged, especially at or above the freezing level. Frequently "p-static" can be heard over the radios in this situation.

Commonly you'll recieve the same charge as the area around you, but occasionally, you'll transit to another area that has an opposite charge and generate the discharge before the two oppositely charged areas do it by themselves.

Lightning can be frequently found well outside areas of moderate of heavy precip when in TRW environments.

 

If you start hearing the static building up on the radios it helps to slow down. reducing the speed reduces the friction and the build up of the charge. ive heard that bombardier figured this out with the dash years ago and its worked on the 145 and 170 for me.

 

Lack of proper training on use of weather radar maybe. Looking at FlightAware makes it look like it may have been just that...pilot error. We'll see.

 

It is terrible. I fly around at gain +2 and +2 degrees tilt (FL300) just to see anything. And you can't see anything beyond 80 miles. Unless it's huge, you can't see it beyond 40 miles.

 

And having said that, why would they fly through that cell? It looks like they were heading right for the middle of it then turned toward the edge at the last minute. I'd say they cut it too close.

There's a lot of pilots out there whose motto is "don't be late, penetrate". I hope the AF accident shows people why you give storms a wide berth.

 

Correct.........this has been well known for many years. It also improves the effectiveness of the static wicks as well, although in the 145 with its many pointy extemeties, it remains a problem.

I can reduce it somewhat by slowing below about 270, which is something to do in moderate bumps anyway and fast enough to usually keep ATC happy.

Also the freezing level is the best place to generate static and also among the higher risks for taking a lightning strike, so I try to avoid prolonged exposure if possible when operating near areas of convective weather.

 

I haven't had too much problem with the EMB radar (8000+ hours). At first, I felt it had some issues, but the only issue that remain is its greater susceptability for attenuation. In anything greater then light precip, its effectiveness is greatly reduced more so then mainline aircraft with larger antennas. but that's to be expected.

I've had little problem using it effectively out to 50 miles which is enough for planning. Even very large returns can be identified farther, but ground clutter due to tilt and downward slope of the signal requires understanding.

 

Well we all know that it will always be pilot error, but I wouldnt go on the flightaware picture alone. I have been using flightaware for years, and to be honest, the flight could have been going for hours, yet obviously the radar snapshot overlaid has to have been a single loop on the radar, the question is when? Especially when these cells can move at a very good pace, and we as pilots are trying to guestimate an aproximate 20 mile bearth. This is not an exact science for sure.

 

if that is how you are using the radar you are using it incorrectly. at fl300 the radar should almost always be in the negative tilt. the crj radar is actually pretty good, you just have to know how to use it.

the correct way to use the radar on the crj 200 is as follows.

choose a distance you want to use. the 80-160 is not very effective but
still can be used to see larger items further away.

the best distances are the 20-40 or the 40-80.

the way to use the radar is set the distance you want to look at. then tilt the radar down till you begin to paint ground and you can see a fairly solid green arc at the furthest distance on your screen. once you have established a good ground paint arc then you can begin to watch for weather. the ground arc should stay at the same distance at all times unless you adjust the tilt again. ANYTHING that comes out of the ground arc you have been painting and comes closer to the plane is an area of weather and thunderstorms. you also at the higher altitudes want to point the tilt down a little more than normal. the crj doesn't pic up frozen precip so at the higher altitudes it wont paint storms unless you are pointing down below the freezing level.

so in review.

Point radar so that you get a good solid arc of ground clutter at the furthest distance for the range you have chosen. the ground clutter should stay the exact same distance from you.

If something moves closer to you out of the ground clutter it is an area of weather and should be avoided.