Page 12 - Twin and Turbine December 16

Whatever Happened
Today’s pilots often place algorithims ahead of the raw data
More and more pilots today are relying almost blindly on an array of information fed to them by a computer. What is presented to them, after being massaged by an algorithm, they accept; information from raw nature is not analyzed as it used to be years ago. The FAA warned us about that shortcoming 25 years ago inAC 60-22. Look it up.
The short of it is, you cannot dispatch a long-haul flight with only TAFs, NOTAMs, Weather Depiction and wind aloft charts, and some satellite pictures. Didn’t you ask for the area forecasts, SIGMETs, turbulence, icing, high ice water content, and lightning charts? What do you know about the geography of the area over which you’ll be flying? Some time ago, I asked a colleague from a well-known international airline about his weather radar. Basically, I wanted to know his make and model, and he couldn’t answer that simple question, nor could his other crewmembers. “As long as I see some colors on the screen, I’ll avoid them”, he said. No mention of using airborne weather radar as a crosscheck on navigation or its value in maintaining situational awareness and separating terrain features from thunderstorms.
You may say I’m an old fashioned pilot that never got used to “new technologies”. You would be wrong. I like new gadgetry, but I always check it against other sources. Let me explain; this example comes from my last flight, non-stop from Miami to BuenosAires.
Of course, during the preflight briefing I used all the information I had at hand, including the charts already described.
South To Buenos Aires
The flight was quiet until south of Jamaica. Then, far in the distance some lightning was seen; first, some with a red tone, then turning whitish. We were at FL330 over OTAMO, the exit point from Jamaica. Note in this photo the scatter of little echoes off to the left. That’s sea clutter and it indicates to me the surface wind
is from the south. Since I’m above FL300 over the Caribbean, why do I care? It’s just for the 6-million- to-1 chance that I might have to ditch. It has happened you know. It’s not something I worry about, but just something called playing the “What If?” game. Should that once in 6-million-to-1 chance occur, by knowing what the surface wind is doing I am prepared to react calmly, rather than in a panic of not knowing what to do.
Between KOVAB and MORGI, right of course, there is a string of echoes. There are no islands in that area so it must be a string of storm cells. Abeam of BAQ, to the left, there is another green something at around 200 nm. This one is particularly hard to say whether it’s storm or terrain...except that in flying over the area many times before I know that land is a bit farther away. It must be weather.
Note that in this photo I have TILT at -2o (upper right corner). I have three reasons: (a) as altitude increases, storms over the sea lose reflectivity faster than over land, so if you want to see them in their true reflectivity, TILT has to be set a bit lower, and (b) since my antenna has a 3.5o beam, I know from
long experience that everything coming into the 30 NM ring should be avoided to prevent an encounter with a CAT Bubble, and, lastly, (c) with that TILT selection in flight above FL290 the ground is painted from about 80 nm and, therefore, because of the looking-down angle, any echo inside 80 nm must be a tall thunderstorm or a very tall mountain.
See the dent on the left? That’s Santa Marta Bay, which makes it clear to me the echoes just to its left are thunderstorms. There are no mountains in that area.
We flew a bit farther south, 40 nm, until we started our deviation between KOVAB and MORGI after the storms on the west side of Santa Marta Bay started to fade away.
10 • TWIN & TURBINE
DECEMBER 2016