Radar on P337

[rrolland]

A number of used radar systems are available on eBay and from companies like Sarasota Avionics.

Radar pods also come up for sale occasionally.

Has anyone retrofitted a radar on a P337?

Any insight would be appreciated.

Richard

[hharney]

With the availability of Weather service, especially NexGen, the old radar systems can't be given away. If I remember the dome for the Skymaster was only available with monochrome and most of those systems are pretty antiquated.

ADS-b will give you a nice picture on the iPad and if you want better then go for XM weather as it provides satellite, lightning and a few other options over the free NexGen stuff.

I like on-board if that's all you have but my choice would be nexrad from XM all day. The cost of the retrofit would buy you the best weather out there. Just my pennies

[rrolland]

Herb:

All good points. I do have ADS-B in and out on my current airplane as well as a WX 500 displaying on the GTN 750. It works well.

Last July I was flying up from Miami towards northern FL with a bunch of CB's around Melbourne. All was well until the Nexrad weather stopped updating shortly after top of climb. The WX was showing strikes pretty much everywhere in front of the aircraft. Orlando Approach was very helpful in helping me navigate through the line. I came very close to turning around.

Of course, I was barely 50 miles north of the line when Nexrad came back on...

In my day job, I have radar. It works well for short and medium range tactical avoidance. I look at Nexrad as more of a strategic tool.


I do not want to spend a lot of AMU's getting a radar, but if the opportunity arises at reasonable cost I will.


Richard

[mcnuttr]

We have a need for a weather radar for some international flying where there is not currently ads-b in or xm coverage. Looking for a radar and radar pod if anyone has one.

Thanks in advance.

Ross
mcnuttr at pss-1.com

[mshac]

There is a Czech gent making radar pods for the 337 out of fiberglass/kevlar. He has posted photos in one of the Skymaster fan groups on Facebook. Herb is a member there I think. The guy also makes several other parts for Skymasters, and looks to be doing good quality work.

I guess there is still some market for radar pods, but I use a combination of ADS-B weather for strategic avoidance and my BF Goodrich heading-coupled strike finder for tactical avoidance. Never felt the need for radar.

So when your ADS-B weather went south on your Florida flight, did your MX-500 not give a decent picture of the weather for you? At least where the lightning was?

How common is it for ADS-B weather to fail like that, in a critical moment?

A treatise on why Stormscope is better for pilots than either radar or Nexrad: http://www.safepilots.org/library/co...s_08-23-10.pdf

[GAdams]

Thank you for sharing that article. Great practical information.

[mcnuttr]

I will see if I can track down the Czech guy. We have a strike finder and they are very useful. I brought that up previously with the customer unfortunately the customer has asked for it and I do not want to say no. At this point so I am working to find a way.

Ross

[mshac]

I believe you will find the radar pod on FB here: ($850) https://www.facebook.com/groups/1142...6200899474881/

Absolutely stunning quality, $850 seems low to me! Get 'em while you can!

[patrolpilot]

I'm a lightning strike or radar guy over ADSB/NEXRAD. A lot of time with the first too, and the last two will never match the performance. I've got a slaved Insight Strike Finder, but have thought about a radar given the prices.

Any of you old enough to have attended Archie Tramell's radar school?
https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/...ell-remembered

[mshac]

Never attended Archie Tramell's radar school, but it probably would've been valuable training.

It was pretty much OJT for me learning to use weather radar in the airlines. The initial type rating class would be 2-3 weeks, and maybe an hour of that time was spent on using the radar. With radar, you usually learned the tricks of the trade from more experienced pilots.

As an aside, I always wondered why the sim instructors would throw every mechanical problem in the book at you, but never any weather avoidance scenarios. Sure, there were low approaches out the wazoo, but no "Should we deviate based on what the radar is showing" type scenarios. Radar interpretation has always been a bit of "black art" amongst pilots, which is why Mr. Tramell's radar school was needed.

[GAdams]

I attended Archie's School back in the late 1970s. The class was very well done and very well attended. The major emphasis was the use of the tilt and range functions and how they relate to the ground and the height and intensity of the storm. His message was: adjust the tilt until the ground shows up at the edge of the range sweep. Drive away from any dark scalloped spots (green screens) at the edge, which represent the most intense rain. Anyway if I look around hard enough I know I still have the book from the class. Archie's presentation was very professional, fun and worth the time and money to really learn about the use of radar. I know there are some VHS tapes out there as well. He was truly a subject matter expert.

[mshac]

Archie's school lives on: https://www.radar4pilots.com/

[patrolpilot]

How about that!