WX10A Stormscope issue

[0TreeLemur]

Howdy all.   On an IFR trip last week the WX10A stormscope indicated an issue.  I was using it to help avoid embedded convection in a broad region of stratiform rain from  just west of the Mississippi River and over most of Arkansas.   The Stormscope seemed to work fine at 100 and 200 NM range settings, and generally agreed with what I was seeing on FIS-B.   However at 50 and 25 NM range it displayed no lightning.  There were some strikes within 50 miles according to what I saw at 100 mile range.

I'm wondering if this is most likely a problem with the display or the processor?   I'm guessing that it is probably the processor.   Anyone have any experience with this?

The ZME controller I was talking to was extremely helpful in avoidance based on his radar info.

 

[65MooneyPilot]

It’s been about 26 years since I flew with a stormscope and they are great. As I recall if you switch ranges it would not hold any info in memory and you would have to Waite for another strike before it popped up on the screen. Other than that I am no help. I do know that in clear skies it will detect strikes that are associated with turbulence. 

[takair]

Fred

My experience is with a WX 1000, so performance may vary. You may be seeing radial spread. When in long ranges, you will see some strikes closer than they are….usually pointing toward the core of the storm.  This used to get me quite anxious, but using range, as you did, provides a reality check.  Cross check with datalink weather helps too, but must consider the delay there.  Do you know if you really had strikes inside 50nm?
 

BF Goodrich pilots manuals are a great resource. They speak to many of the quirks of spherics and techniques to optimize them. Most show up on line. 

[0TreeLemur]

1 hour ago, takair said:

Fred

My experience is with a WX 1000, so performance may vary. You may be seeing radial spread. When in long ranges, you will see some strikes closer than they are….usually pointing toward the core of the storm.  This used to get me quite anxious, but using range, as you did, provides a reality check.  Cross check with datalink weather helps too, but must consider the delay there.  Do you know if you really had strikes inside 50nm?
 

BF Goodrich pilots manuals are a great resource. They speak to many of the quirks of spherics and techniques to optimize them. Most show up on line. 

Thanks for your reply Rob.   There were a few strikes within 50 NM, but not many.  I was mostly surprised because IIRC the WX10A stores strike range & azimuth for the last 256 strikes in memory and re-scales depending on the max. range setting.   At both 50 NM and 25 NM ranges, the display showed nothing.  I powered it off/on at the 50 NM range and it gave me kind of a funny "+" shaped display on the CRT that faded away.   It seemed to work fine at 100 or 200 NM ranges all day.   At 100 and 200 NM ranges everything looked fine.  Maybe I just don't worry about it?

I did have Nexrad up on my iPad, and everything made sense that I was seeing.  The controller was Johnny on the spot with some suggested headings to avoid the heavy precip.  He sent me towards some nasty looking wx on the iPad that had moved/or died out since the last refresh, which was usually less than 5 minutes.  It was a fun trip.