VATSTAR

P2 Rating: Flight Fundamentals

(Part 1: Basics of Flight)

Lesson 6: Lights! Camera! Lights!

Introduction

This Lesson will describe the various external lighting systems on an aircraft, and explain when each should be used.

Can I Skip This Lesson?

Q: Which type of light is recommended to be on whenever an aircraft's engine is running?

a. the navigation lights.
b. the rotating beacon.
c. the landing lights.

If you answered "B", you can flash right through to the next Lesson. If you're still in the dark, illuminate yourself,
below.

What You Need to Know

Vocabulary

• taxi: to drive an aircraft along the ground.

• livery: the "paint scheme" of a commercial vehicle (car, truck, airplane, etcetera) which shows its corporate
branding, incorporating its corporate colors and logo. Airlines generally update their liveries every ten to fifteen
years; often, certain airlines will employ the use of "specialty liveries" commemorating some event, place, product,
or other tie-in with their corporation -- purely to cross-promote, as well as to generate interest among aviation
enthusiasts hoping to catch a glimpse of such a uniquely painted aircraft in person.

Concepts

• Anti-Collision Lights include both a red Rotating Beacon

and white Strobe Lights. The Rotating Beacon should be on
whenever there is an engine running. The Strobe should be
on whenever the aircraft is on a runway or in the air,
although because it is such a powerful and intense flashing
light, it may be turned off in clouds if the reflection
interferes with the safe operation of the airplane.
• Navigation Lights (also called Position Lights) show green
to the aircraft's right, red to the aircraft's left, and white from behind the aircraft. For General Aviation aircraft, they
should be on at night. Most commercial aircraft procedures have them on anytime the aircraft is under power of any
kind.
• Landing Lights are forward-facing floodlights, similar to headlights on a car. They are meant to be an aid to the pilot
to assist with visibility of the runway environment when landing at night. General Aviation aircraft typically use these
as their name implies; commercial aircraft recommendations from the FAA are that they should be activated when
takeoff clearance is given and left on until climbing past 10,000 feet; then, when landing, operated from 10,000 feet
down until vacating the runway.
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• Taxi Lights are also forward-facing floodlights but are generally broader-beamed and not as intense as Landing
Lights. It is recommended that they be illuminated when taxiing, and extinguished when stopping or yielding to
other ground traffic, or when adversely affecting the operation of any crew member.
• Logo Lights are lights directed toward the fuselage and/or tailfin of the aircraft (generally speaking of commercial
airliners) so that its brand name and logo can be seen in the dark. They are recommended to be on at night
whenever the aircraft is on the ground and is moving or is about to move. Furthermore, because the lights are so
important for visbility of the air carrier's brand name, company regulations often require them to remain on up to
18,000ft MSL. Like the navigation lights, many pilots simply have these on anytime the aircraft is operating.
• One important thing to know is that, as of this writing, the state of your aircraft's external lighting is not sent over the
VATSIM network; all decisions about whether to display aircraft with lights on or off are made by the user's VATSIM
Pilot Client.

More Detail

External aircraft lighting systems come in two main varieties -- those that help the pilot and crew see better, and those that
help the aircraft be seen better, particularly at a distance, in the dark, or both.

Of those that are meant to make the aircraft more visible to others, the first set are the anti-collision lights. These
come in two forms -- a red rotating beacon, and a white strobe. The red beacon is meant to be illuminated any time
an aircraft has an engine running, or is about to. The white strobes are to be operated anytime the aircraft is on a
runway or in the air. However, their flash is so powerful that it can reflect off of water vapor and temporarily blind
the flight crew -- so pilots often turn them off when flying through clouds, to avoid interfering with their safe
operation of the aircraft.

The next set of lights that make an aircraft more visible are the navigation lights (which are also occasionally
referred to as position lights, since they help to identify an aircraft's position from far away). These are set up so
that anyone seeing the plane from its right side will see a green light, anyone seeing it from the left will see red, and
anyone seeing it from behind will see steady white (as opposed to the flashing white of the strobes).
(INTERESTING TIDBIT: this is another example of aviation borrowing from maritime, as the navigation lights
on a boat are set up in a similar fashion; the green on the vehicle's right is meant to signify to other vessels that it is
okay to pass on that side. In that respect, boats and aircraft in the US are meant to pass on each others' right, as
opposed to cars on US roadways, which do the opposite.) The FAA guideline for General Aviation aircraft is that
the navigation lights should be on at night; i.e. after sundown and before sunrise. Commercial aircraft procedures
generally call for these lights to be on any time the aircraft is under power, whether that refers just to cockpit and
instruments or includes engine power.

Logo lights are floodlights installed into commercial airliners that are aimed at the side of the aircraft itself, whose
sole purpose is to ensure that the aircraft's livery, its commercial name, branding, and logo, are visible at nighttime
to others. So the company's regulations will usually dictate that these lights be on as much as possible when they are
useful, which is at night. The FAA also recommends that they be used anytime a plane is in motion on the ground,
to help it to be seen by others. Like the Navigation lights, many airline procedures call for them to be on whenever
the aircraft is running, and commonly it is called for to leave them on until above 18,000 feet MSL.

Landing lights fit into both categories, being those that help a pilot see and those that help an aircraft be seen. The
former is the ostensive purpose of the lights, as you can guess from their name -- they're intended to help the pilots
see the runway environment when landing. And, for General Aviation aircraft, this is how they are typically used.
However, it has become customary for commercial aircraft to operate them anytime they're under 10,000 ft MSL.
They will typically be activated once takeoff clearance is received and turned off once landed and vacating the
runway.

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The last set of lights to discuss are the taxi lights. Like the landing lights, the taxi lights were originally designed
with the purpose of helping pilots see around the ground environment when taxiing. However, the FAA now prefers
aircraft to use these whenever a plane is moving along the ground, or about to be; and that they be shut off as a
signal that one plane is yielding to another on the ground. They should also be shut off upon reaching the runway
environment.

One very important thing to note, though, is that the VATSIM network protocol was not originally designed to
support the transmission of external light states along with your position and direction information. When you see
another aircraft in your simulator, whether or not any given lighting system is shown as being engaged or dark is a
decision made by your VATSIM Pilot Client software. FSInn has its own protocol for sharing light states among
other FSInn users, but, users of vPilot will not see light state changes from FSInn users. The opposite is also true;
vPilot transmits light states in a way that other vPilot users will see but FSInn users will not. SquawkBox and
XSquawkBox may or may not do something similar; I have no idea. The upshot is that simulating proper light use is
purely a personal choice by the pilot for his or her own desired level of realism -- the others around you may or may
not see the results.

Summary

Anti-collision lights refer to the red rotating beacon (usually on when an engine is on, or about to be), and the white strobes
(on when on a runway or in the air, but off while in clouds at the flight crew's option, to avoid blinding themselves).
Navigation lights are also called position lights and include a green light on the right side, red on the left, and white from the
rear -- GA aircraft are supposed to use them at night, but most commercial airline procedures include use of these whenever
there is electrical power to the cockpit. Logo lights are generally specific to commercial aircraft and refers to the lights aimed
at the fuselage and tail to illuminate the corporate branding of the carrier; they're generally on whenever the aircraft is
moving or about to move on the ground, on up to 18,000 feet MSL. Landing lights are used by GA pilots to help illuminate
the runway environment; commercial planes typically operate them from takeoff clearance until 10,000 feet, then from
10,000 back down to the point at which they vacate the runway. Taxi lights are for helping the pilot see while taxiing along
the ground, and should be turned off to indicate that they are holding position to yield to other ground traffic. However, the
state of your external lighting is not consistently sent over the VATSIM network, so, all of the above is optional, depending
on the level of realism to which you wish to adhere.

Additional Resources

• YouTube: "VATSTAR VATSIM Pilot Rating P2 Course Lesson 6" -- VATSTAR's companion video for this Lesson.

Quiz

1: Which of the following is true about anti-collision lights?

a. they must be on at all times.
b. they consist of a rotating red beacon and a white strobe.
c. they are meant to make a plane's orientation discernable from far away.
d. all of the above.
e. none of the above.

2: Which of the following is true about navigation lights?

a. they are green, red, and white
b. they must be on at all times below 10,000ft MSL.
c. they indicate that oncoming planes should pass on the left side.
d. all of the above.
e. none of the above.

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3: Which of the following is true about logo lights?

a. they illuminate the corporate paint scheme on an aircraft's body and tail.
b. there is no particular recommendation from the FAA about their use.
c. they are operated by the airline, not by the pilots.
d. all of the above.
e. none of the above.

ANSWERS: 1. B ... 2. A ... 3. A

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