Weather Radar Tilt Methods

[Bil Derberg]

Hi guys, I was wondering if some of you can share what method is best for weather radar tilt. Do some of you use a specfic formula?
Thanks.

[digits_]

No formula. It changes so much per airplane.

Tilt down until the ground is surely reading around a mile ahead of you. Then tilt up. You'll see the ground reflection move further away. Keep doing that until the ground is reading at a distance of about 90% of your current range. Note the tilt setting. Anything between you and the ground is now real weather. Tilt up as required to look at higher stuff.

[BTD]

D.B.Zs

[telex]

https://www.theairlinepilots.com/foruma ... a-tilt.pdf

All you need to know.

[Ki-ll]

https://www.theairlinepilots.com/foruma ... a-tilt.pdf

All you need to know.

This.
Archie knew very well what he was talking about.
Also, this:
https://www.radar4pilots.com/
I know it looks expensive but it is worth every cent.

[Eric Janson]

Don't forget the gain - once again depending on the model of radar you are using.

The system I use does not show tropical weather very well as the tops of the cells are "dry" and do not reflect radar energy very well.

In some cases you may get a few green flecks until very close when a lot more suddenly appears.

I normally set max gain and range on 40nm with the tilt at -2 degrees at night or in IMC. I try to avoid anything that appears on the screen. Learned the hard way when I first started flying in the tropics.

In areas where there is a lot of weather I will adjust gain, tilt and range to find the best path through.

I've flown with the Collins multi-scan radar - a huge improvement imho. Even with this system I used the manual settings to verify what was being displayed.

[Maynard]

https://www.theairlinepilots.com/foruma ... a-tilt.pdf

All you need to know.

+1

Used this method for years, a good way to know you're not painting the ground.

[Maynard]

No formula. It changes so much per airplane.

Tilt down until the ground is surely reading around a mile ahead of you. Then tilt up. You'll see the ground reflection move further away. Keep doing that until the ground is reading at a distance of about 90% of your current range. Note the tilt setting. Anything between you and the ground is now real weather. Tilt up as required to look at higher stuff.

Also, why it doesn't matter per airplane for the forumla posted here, you're painting the ground on a distance ring. The tilt angle will be different on every plane but the 40nm will remain the same which is why it works so well.

[tsgarp]

Find out what your beam width is (usually in the 3 to 4 degree range). Start by tilting the radar up by one half of the beam width (i.e. if you beam width is 3 degrees start with a +1.5 degree tilt). This will keep the bottom of your beam parallel to the ground (minimizing ground returns) and give to the best look at what is ahead of you. It will may require some fine tuning to get it just right.

You can use tilt, along with the 1 in 60 rule to get a rough idea of cell height. When you are painting a cell, adjust tilt upwards until the return disappears. Take the tilt angle and the distance to the return to work out cell height using the 1 in 60 rule; i.e. if your tilt angle is 3 degrees up (measured from the normal half beam width up position I mention in the first paragraph) and you are 60 miles from the return, the cell extends ~18000 feet (3 miles) above your height.

[RedAndWhiteBaron]

I had no idea that weather radar "tilt" was a thing.

Thanks, I learned something today.

[NotDirty!]

I had no idea that weather radar "tilt" was a thing.

Thanks, I learned something today.

Don’t feel too bad about it... from the sounds of the article that telex posted, there were some Delta L1011 pilots who didn’t know it was a thing either!

[DHC-1 Jockey]

My first introduction to RADAR technique was at a 704 operator flying Metroliners. I remember in groundschool watching a 1970's VHS video of some good ol' boy from Texas saying that when you were heading towards red or magenta, to "take your cowboy boots down off the glareshield and buckle up." Or something to that effect.

[rookiepilot]

My first introduction to RADAR technique was at a 704 operator flying Metroliners. I remember in groundschool watching a 1970's VHS video of some good ol' boy from Texas saying that when you were heading towards red or magenta, to "take your cowboy boots down off the glareshield and buckle up." Or something to that effect.

I love my Texas friends....
On a long car ride with a couple of them once...sweet little old ladies comparing their handguns...

[VSF]

From what I remember from THE weather radar video (the one with afore mentioned good ole boy from Texas):

Paint your AGL height in miles. Raise by half the beam width. This is the "Parked Position" where you leave your radar for most ops. It generally results in ground returns starting around 30nm out (I short cut-ed and just painted 30nm). Anything between you and the ground returns is weather, anything 30nm and further is either weather or ground. This enables you to see radar shadows, etc. Have attached a pic of this in action.

I forget the formula to have the bottom of the beam level with the ground.

[BTD]

If you can get around that build up at 30 miles, the black area behind looks clear...........

Yes the good ole boy was my reference to DBZs. Depending on the flying, it will work. But 30 miles ends up being close when you are trueing at 400+ knots .

A real loose technique, is to paint the ground somewhere in the top third of the screen. Keeping in mind the higher you are depending on range selection you may be looking overtop of some weather. Periodically scan up and down to get a good picture.

Tilt is quickly becoming obsolete with the newer self scanning/processing radars. Light years better. The old setups will be around for a while yet though.

[ahramin]

Tilt is quickly becoming obsolete with the newer self scanning/processing radars. Light years better. The old setups will be around for a while yet though.

I don't find this at all. The new radars are fantastic for finding the weather, but you still need to use manual tilt to check how tall the weather is lest you go around every cloud in the sky. I saw quite a bit of that when we added a couple aircraft with auto scanning radars. Planes deviating all over the place without a single cloud above 20 000'.

[BTD]

Tilt is quickly becoming obsolete with the newer self scanning/processing radars. Light years better. The old setups will be around for a while yet though.

I don't find this at all. The new radars are fantastic for finding the weather, but you still need to use manual tilt to check how tall the weather is lest you go around every cloud in the sky. I saw quite a bit of that when we added a couple aircraft with auto scanning radars. Planes deviating all over the place without a single cloud above 20 000'.

I should have been more specific. On the A220 I haven’t had to fly it through a summer season yet. You are probably correct.

The 37 Max though and I believe the 787 and newer 777s weather radar does not even have a tilt function. Manual mode allows you to take specific altitude levels and look at those. And in auto mode it shows hashed if it is outside your flight path level (below you). Worked great. No tilt at all.

[co-joe]

D.B.Zs

Dragon Ball Z?

Great write ups above, the thing I'd add is that the most dangerous cell of course is an embedded one, and even more dangerous is a cell sitting on top of a geographical feature that you are expecting ground returns from. The urban heat island effect of a large city can produce instability right over the buildings. The orographic lift of a mountain or hill can also trap you into this same confirmation bias.

Example; you adjust tilt, get ground returns, cross reference the distancwe with GPS or DME and confirm that's a city. So you tilt up till they disappear and 50 miles later you get returns on the same spot. It's easy to just assume you are picking up ground returns again, but there could be a CB building there. Adjust tilt up a and down a few degrees, adjust gain just to be sure, and you'll prevent a nasty surprise.

[ahramin]

Tilt is quickly becoming obsolete with the newer self scanning/processing radars. Light years better. The old setups will be around for a while yet though.

I don't find this at all. The new radars are fantastic for finding the weather, but you still need to use manual tilt to check how tall the weather is lest you go around every cloud in the sky. I saw quite a bit of that when we added a couple aircraft with auto scanning radars. Planes deviating all over the place without a single cloud above 20 000'.

I should have been more specific. On the A220 I haven’t had to fly it through a summer season yet. You are probably correct.

The 37 Max though and I believe the 787 and newer 777s weather radar does not even have a tilt function. Manual mode allows you to take specific altitude levels and look at those. And in auto mode it shows hashed if it is outside your flight path level (below you). Worked great. No tilt at all.

Ah you've got the new Honeywell RDR-4000. So far I've been pretty happy with it. I suspect it's still going to need some playing around with the tilt (ELEVN) to determine weather or not to deviate sometimes. I'm in the same boat as you though, haven't had the chance to play with it in an area of severe convective weather yet.

[BTD]

I don't find this at all. The new radars are fantastic for finding the weather, but you still need to use manual tilt to check how tall the weather is lest you go around every cloud in the sky. I saw quite a bit of that when we added a couple aircraft with auto scanning radars. Planes deviating all over the place without a single cloud above 20 000'.

I should have been more specific. On the A220 I haven’t had to fly it through a summer season yet. You are probably correct.

The 37 Max though and I believe the 787 and newer 777s weather radar does not even have a tilt function. Manual mode allows you to take specific altitude levels and look at those. And in auto mode it shows hashed if it is outside your flight path level (below you). Worked great. No tilt at all.

Ah you've got the new Honeywell RDR-4000. So far I've been pretty happy with it. I suspect it's still going to need some playing around with the tilt (ELEVN) to determine weather or not to deviate sometimes. I'm in the same boat as you though, haven't had the chance to play with it in an area of severe convective weather yet.

Yeah the Max radar was great. I imagine this one will be good, but I agree will still have to mess with tilt sometimes.