What's going on in this picture

Interesting how different communities do things differently.

Today I got a bit curious and looked up some info on our radar altimeter. According to the flight manual it's good up to 50k feet. I have only been to 34k and it worked fine at that altitude. There is a note that if you have the nose gear down during flight above 10k feet the readings may be unreliable.

Just did some more looking and the minimum it will display is -10 feet which I always find amusing.

 

Yeah I was wondering how you got that camera to take that picture that quick

 

Kebnekaise?

 

That's interesting-- on every aircraft type I've flown, the radar altimeter only worked from 2,500 feet and below. Do you need radar altitude that high for some reason? Maybe air drops or something?

 

You might have to have readings below -10, whereas LO6 Furnace Creek at Death Valley, Ca has an airport elevation of - 210'. And if you want to get adventurous, there's always Bar Yehuda, Isreal at - 1,240' .
Gary Bobileff

 

My assumption was that it was just an older generation of technology that operated at higher power. I looked up the radar altimeter for the J model which is newer technology and it's supposed to be good to 50k feet as well.

Somewhere I have some pics of the panel from my flight to 34k and will post them up if I can find them.

Sure for MSL, but if your AGL altitude is negative something is seriously wrong

 

Lou- The last one I used, the LARA (low altitude radar altimeter) only displayed to 5000' AGL in USAF aircraft, but rang in (locked on) at higher altitude. Had the TFR/radar altimeter actually fly us over a B-52 on a low level route once. Big enough to look like terrain. We saw him but doubt if anybody but the EWO knew we were there.

 

Yep, senior moment,you're correct, of course it's reading AGL. My error.
Gary Bobileff

 

It got me thinking though... I'm really not familiar with the procedures for flying into those low places. It may have been taught at some point but that penguin fell off the iceburg a long time ago. I'm guessing there are some special procedures for setting altimeters.

 

Found this which is kinda interesting.

 

In a thread like this with these pro's I took the " better to let people think you're stupid than open you're mouth and remove all doubt " route.

 

Yes.

 

Mark- Yup, the CARA replaced the LARA on the F-111 and most other aircraft. I did the OT&E on it combined with the TFR system. Some glitches at first, but eventually we got it working. The instrument fitted to the F-111 and most aircraft with TFR only read to 5000' AGL, which was also ring-in (pitch-down) altitude for the TFR.

 

Alrighty then. I didn't get it anyway, cuz my 'radar' altimeter is in my head, and I just lean over and get the best guess.

What does the radar alt read when you round out on landing in one of those tin overcast?

OBTW, there was something wrong with your LA coast pic too. It was upside down(for the plane type)...

 

That's true for the ones I've used as well. However, I don't think it would be very accurate, or useful, at altitudes in the 30s, but I suppose I could be wrong. The one Mark is talking about seems to be designed for high altitude use, given the limitations he mentioned.

 

Taz could probably tell you more as he apparently had some involvement but from the look of things it probably uses a couple different antennas and automatically switches between modes of operation based on altitude. It's transparent to us as there is nothing really to do except setting an altitude in it.

I have some interesting flying going on this weekend and will play around with it a bit.

 

I've had the exact thing happen to me a few times. One, flying back from HNL to LAX when the RA went to 2,000', looked out and saw a 747 passing below.

But with the Libyan planes missing, maybe they are "shadowing" you!

 

Someone just posted a cockpit video of a 757 overtaking another jet on Live Leak.

 

I flew from DEN to SAN several years ago.

There was another plane below us, maybe 2K feet below and slightly to the left. Noticed the contrail first.

Literally stayed right there the entire flight.

Like a loose formation.

 

I guess you always want what you don't have..... We will purposely file separately just to avoid having anything close like that for long periods. Longest formation flight I have been on was a ten ship that went from Texas to Nevada and that sucked even at really relaxed spacing.