Wednesday, July 1, 2015

General topics on how do airplanes fly?

Lights in a flight

Lights play a very important roll in providing and exchanging information between airplanes and Air Traffic Controls (ATC). Lights are considered an effective way of communications to avoid collisions and to have safe conduct of flying.

Lights are used by airplanes, the runway, the taxiways and at the ATC.

Lights on an airplane.

On an airplane, there is a red flashing beacon, which indicates that the aircraft is in operations and it is usually located at the top of the tail or the rudder.

At end of the fuselage of the aircraft, there is a white light (usually flashing). Also white flashing lights are available at the tip of both wings. These white lights are considered anti-collision lights.

On the tip of the left side wing, also called "port wing", there is a red light. On the tip of the right side wing, also called "star board wing", there is a green light. From a distance, the pilot call tell weather the aircraft is flying towards or away from him by seeing and determine the side and the color of the light. If the green light is on the left hand side, this means the aircraft is flying towards him, and thus has to be prepared to avoid collision.

Just above the nose wheel and on the leading edge of the wing, there are taxi/landing lights which are used to see and be seen during night operations.

Please refer to the picture below.


Lights on the runway and the taxiway.

Lights on the runway are usually used during the night, however they are also used during the day and especially when the weather is poor. Lights used on the runway and the taxiway, used to indicate the boundaries of the way and to give other information like not in use, no entry and other information.

The lights on the side of the runway are the PAPI or the VASI which help the pilot determine his approach glide slope and will show weather he is high or low. Also these lights provide the pilot with information on the center-line of the runway.

The Lights colors use are, ample, red, and green.

There are some other visual aids used to help color blind pilots to know and determine the information that these lights provide. Please refer to the picture below.


Lights at the ATC

In case of radio failure, lights flashing system is used by the ATC operators to communicate between the them and the pilot. The information will be transmitted by flashing lights with green, white and red colors so the pilot can follow certain instruction to act upon. Please see picture below.


No comments:

Post a Comment