Weather radar in general aviation

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Weather radar in general aviation

Stolpman, J.L.

The development of general aviation weather radar systems is discussed, along with one system of particular interest. The requirements for the new system of radars led to the development of features unique to the RDS series of radars, and the implementation of many features considered as standard in air-transport radars. These included variable pulse widths and pulse-repetition frequency (PRF), with the width and PRF optimized for the selected viewing range. Automatic range limiting (ARL) notifies the pilot when attenuation because of weather is so severe that another storm on a line behind the displayed weather may not be detected. Other features included ARINC 429 control bus, ARINC 453 radar data bus, and a dual scanning mode that allowed for different range settings on dual displays. The ARINC bus interface allowed for interface to electronic flight-instrument systems (EFIS) being used in the larger aircraft.