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April 1st, 2004, 08:15
| #1 |
| Junior Member  Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: North East; KFRG
Posts: 66
|  radar reflectors??
What are rwy radar reflectors for?
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April 1st, 2004, 13:01
| #2 |
| Administrator  Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Pinal Airpark
Posts: 6,897
| Re: radar reflectors??
They're for aircraft performing embedded (self-contained) approaches utilizing their onboard radar. The reflectors are normally placed to define the landing threshold. Military fighter aircraft and some transport aircraft utilize these systems. The positives of these embedded approaches, commonly known as AILA (Airborne Instrument Landing Aid) is that there's no ground or airfield power required to run any ground systems (they're purely passive), and there's no signal(s) such as you'd have with ILS or VORTAC that can be jammed or destroyed in a hostile environment.
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April 1st, 2004, 19:03
| #3 |
| Junior Member Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: North East; KFRG
Posts: 66
| Re: radar reflectors??
thanks for this detailed reply.
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April 2nd, 2004, 02:15
| #4 |
| Junior Member  Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: USA
Posts: 131
| Re: radar reflectors??
Interesting... What kind of indication you get? Is it distance, visual (radar display), azimuth, course deflection? |
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April 2nd, 2004, 23:16
| #5 |
| Junior Member  Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Portland, Oregon
Posts: 277
| Re: radar reflectors??
[ QUOTE ] What are rwy radar reflectors for? [/ QUOTE ] They're used by the FAA to randomly lower the applicants ATP written test score by 1.25%.  One of the test question shows the symbol (looks like to cones connected at the pointy ends) on an airport diagram, and asks, "What is this symbol". |
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April 4th, 2004, 00:19
| #6 |
| Administrator Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Pinal Airpark
Posts: 6,897
| Re: radar reflectors??
[ QUOTE ] Interesting... What kind of indication you get? Is it distance, visual (radar display), azimuth, course deflection? [/ QUOTE ] You get a display of the the runway, as outlined by the reflectors, in a radar-mapping style display. Also from the reflectors, you get distance as well as a computed glidepath display, in many applications. |
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April 4th, 2004, 13:17
| #7 |
| Senior Member  Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Orange County
Posts: 336
| Re: radar reflectors??
...Can someone tell me what an azimuth is? I looked it up in my little book of explanations, and it gives me this explanation: azimuth - Angular measurement made in a horizontal plane and in a clockwise direction.  Kinda confusing...little help please?
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April 4th, 2004, 13:59
| #8 |
| Administrator Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Pinal Airpark
Posts: 6,897
| Re: radar reflectors??
As pertains to ILS-type approaches, for easy understanding: Azimuth: degrees left/right of localizer centerline. Elevation: degrees above/below glideslope. |
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