In article ,
Jackie wrote:

That's interesting. So if what you say is correct, an airport
surveillance radar has very little coverage of the area, say at the top
of a class B airspace because to cover that high an angle is "wasteful."
For example, a VFR plane flying legally just above the B ceiling could
very well be out of coverage of the radar that is supposed to be also
monitoring another high performance aircraft poking through that ceiling
at a high rate of speed. I'm not sure I agree with such an energy
saving measure.

Over the top of a class B airport is where the planes taking off
from that airport usually aren't. They go out the sides, not
straight up. There is usually more then one radar feed for a
TRACON, so although the radar at the primary airport for the class
B can't see right above it, other radars in the area provide that
coverage.

For example, SFO has a radar station, as does OAK and NUQ (Moffett
Field). They overlap each other so there is fairly complete
coverage.

John
--
John Clear - http://www.clear-prop.org/