Maybe, but the spherics data downloaded on the ADL would show a huge amount of activity…
Here are two ADL screenshots of yesterday:
I’m pretty new to the ADL box (140 in my case) and got the chance to use it properly on Wednesday morning on EGSC to EDDK.
There were a couple of troughs around and it was obvious a couple of hours before the flight from the radar that the usual route over Belgium would be very bad. So I rerouted over Amsterdam. As luck would have it, the activity over Belgium reduced and it built over the NL, though it was still the better choice I think.
As approached the Dutch coast at FL100, there was some nasty stuff with fairly small gaps between, and everyone going around it. ATC was excellent (“just circumnavigate the wx towards SONEB”). It was clear over eastern NL and then darker and rainier as I got towards EDDK.
Here’s the situation at the end of the flight:
@boscomantico
This is a screenshot from my last approach in IMC. In the “green” there was only rain in the clouds, at 5000 feet, 6° degrees C. Had there been a CB the radar image would have shown it.
@bookworm
Welcome to the ADL club. I think the ADL is one of the best possible upgrades for IFR flying. I have it a year now and cannot remember what it felt like to fly in IMC without it. I have a stormscope on the MFD, but I was never really sure if i can trust it. Now, in combination with the ADL I have a much better idea of what is around me.
Three weeks ago when I flew to Poland I was in IMC for 90 minutes (by choice becasue it was +3C in 8000 feet and I was pretty sure there was icing above, at least the forecast said so) … Every time I entered a “green area” the rain intensified and it was great to circumnavigate the “yellow” stuff approaching Poznan/EPPO.
boscomantico wrote:
The ADL radar images get updated every 15 minutes. They come out 4 minutes after each quarter of the hour. So, you can have 4 minute old (very fresh) data in your cockpit. But at the very end of the 15 minute cycle, the data is 19 minutes old
I thought the processing delay is three minutes, i.e. the age ranges from three to eighteen minutes. But that’s just nitpicking.
Martin wrote:
I thought the processing delay is three minutes, i.e. the age ranges from three to eighteen minutes. But that’s just nitpicking.
I also did but it happened to me few times that when I started download at 3 min delay (+15-30 seconds) I got old data. So I switch to 4 min.
That’s interesting, Emir, I will take that into account. I will ask Sebastion about it. On my last flight through a lot if IMC i put the App on “automatic download” and that worked pretty well. I have the GPS1 connected to the ADL, so i have the latest rout including all changes on the iPad, and that is really comfortable too, but not necessary, since you always see your position anyway.
Peter wrote:
@Bookworm – would you be happy to use the ADL to fly in IMC below 0C, where convective wx is known or forecast, in a non-deiced aircraft (which I think yours is)?
Peter,
I think the ADL is very useful for navigating (in a gross sense) around convective weather. I don’t think it helps at all with icing other than that part of icing that is correlated with convective weather.
@JasonC
what’s pretty good is that the App shows the temperature for different Flight Levels, so that gives a good idea about icing. When I climb into the clouds I compare those figures with the temperatures on the radar image, and most of the time it was pretty correct. If I don’t trust it I fly in positive temperaturs and in IMC, especially since my typical IFR flights are 2 hours max …