Serious Question Regarding RADAR and Phantoms

sdtrojan · Jan 29, 2015

Does anyone on here know if the Phantom will show up on FAA RADAR? I was at a local park the other night flying, reveling in my rock-star-like status as I collected a small crowd of groupies (ok, 2 people...an older man and a boy scout) to watch and ask questions. The older gentleman saw a military helicopter fly by at about 300' AGL and immediately freaked out saying the police were sent after me (he was an older Indian - as in Bombay - who jumped to conclusions a little quickly). But that did get me think as to whether these will show up on RADAR?

Anyone with any knowledge of this happening or being reported?

Thanks

:geek:

Meta4 · Jan 29, 2015

Probably not.
1. At the level Phantoms are mostly flown at, it is lost in the background terrain - hence the expression, to fly below the radar. Radar just doesn't work well down low.
2. A radar sensitive enough to show items as small as Phantoms would be useless because the screen will be blanked out from returns from trees, birds etc, etc.
3. There isn't much in a Phantom to give a good radar return. No large flat metal surfaces, the plastic won't show at all.

RustyProp · Jan 29, 2015

Absolutely not! If it would the recent White House event would've seen that one coming...

PhantomFanatic · Jan 29, 2015

There was no connection. As others said, your Phantom is below radar range if you abide by the 400' maximum altitude rule. Even if you went higher, I doubt your Phantom could be seen on radar.