Visual Aids

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 Visual Aids
⦿ Certain landmarks required as aids for
pilots to perform landing and take off
operations safely
⦿ Required during good as well as bad
weather conditions and also during day
as well as night
⦿ Runways, taxiways and other components
of airport should be properly marked for
easy interpretation by the pilot
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 Visual Aids
⦿ The perspective view of runway along
with runway edges, runway threshold
and centre line of runway are the most
important element for pilots to see
⦿ To enhance the visual information,
landmarks are painted in standard
patterns using specific colour or by
using lights

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 Visual Aids
⦿ Purpose of visual aids
• Avoid accidents during landing of aircraft
• Convey the pilot ground to air information
• Direct the pilot during landing
• Enables the pilot to locate and identify a
particular structure
⦿ Visual Aids
• Airport Markings
• Airport Lightings

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Airport Markings

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TYPES OF AIRPORT MARKINGS
Apron Marking
Runway Marking
Shoulder Marking
Taxiway Marking
Wind Direction Indicator
Landing Direction Indicator

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APRON MARKING

Guide lines to help the pilots in maneuvering the aircraft on the

apron

They are related to the path to be traversed during parking in

and out operations near terminal

Guide line indicates the path of the nose gear of the aircraft

Yellow paint is used for marking

Paints used should be fuel resistant since aprons are subjected

to fuel spillage

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 Runway Markings
⦿ Runway threshold marking
⦿ Runway touch down zone or landing zone
marking
⦿ Runway edge strip marking
⦿ Runway centre line marking
⦿ Runway numbering

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 Runway Markings
⦿ Runway threshold marking
• Marked by a series of parallel lines starting from a
distance of 6m from runway end
⦿ Runway touch down zone (landing zone)
marking
• Indicated by series of stripes arranged
symmetrically about the centre-line
• The no: of strips decreases gradually in the
direction of landing
⦿ Runway edge strip marking
• Provided when the runway width exceeds 45m. Long
continuous strips 90cm wide may be marked near
the edges.

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 Runway Markings
⦿ Runway centre line marking
Represented by a broken strip running along the
entire length of runway. (width 90 cm)
⦿ Runway numbering
Number indicate the magnetic azimuth (angle
measured in clockwise direction from north of
runway in direction of landing)

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Runway Markings

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Runway Markings

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Runway Markings

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 Taxiway Markings
⦿ Typical taxiway markings are made in
yellow color paints
⦿ Centre line of taxiway is marked with a
single strip having 15cm width

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 Shoulder Markings
⦿ Yellow stripes 90 cm wide placed 30 m
apart
⦿ Runway shoulders are marked with
diagonal lines (at 45°)whereas taxiway
and holding apron shoulders are marked
with stripes perpendicular to the
direction of aircraft

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 Wind Direction Indicator
⦿ The direction from which wind blows is
indicated at the airport by a wind cone
⦿ Wind cone placed at centre of
segmented circle together with landing
direction indicator
⦿ Should be visible from a height of 30 m

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 LANDING DIRECTION
INDICATOR
To indicate landing direction, an arrow or tee
is placed at the centre of a segmented circle
Indicates the direction of active runway of
airport
Painted in orange or white
Fixed at distinct place and lighted during
night

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Airport Lighting

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 Airport Lighting

⦿ Guidance to be provided during landing

• Alignment guidance – Pilot must know whether his
aircraft is heading straight towards runway
• Height information - Pilot must know how much high
the aero plane is above ground
• Distance information - Pilot must know how far is
he from the runway even in poor visibility conditions
• Roll guidance - Pilot must know, if his aircraft is
banked in relation to the ground surface

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 Airport Lighting
⦿ Factors affecting the type and intensity
of airport lighting:
• Airport classification
• Amount of traffic to be handled
• Nature of aircrafts using airport
• Type of night operations planned
• Weather conditions etc

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 Airport Lighting
⦿ Elements of airport lighting
• Rotating beacon
• Code beacon
• Boundary lighting
• Approach lighting
• Threshold lighting
• Runway lighting
• Taxiway lighting
• Apron and hanger lighting
• Lighting of wind direction indicator
• Lighting of landing direction indicator

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 Airport Beacon
⦿ Rotating Beacon
• Strong beam of light situated above horizontal and rotated to
produce flashing light to an observer
• Rotating airport beacon gives white and green flashes in
horizontal direction 180° apart
• It indicates approximate location of an airport equipped for
night operations
⦿ Code Beacon
• This beacon is mounted high so that its beam clears all
obstructions
• It continuously flashes a Morse code signal designating airport

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 Approach Lighting
⦿ Calvert system
•A sequence of high-intensity lighting
arrangement up to 900m provided before the
runway starts
• Mounted on pedestal of varying height,
maintaining light at the same level

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 Boundary Lighting
⦿ Entire boundary is provided with lights

⦿ Centre to Centre distance - about 90 m and height-

75 cm from the ground.

⦿ Provided with red marker lights for hazardous

approach

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ICAO system of approach lights
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 Threshold Lighting
• Region near the threshold is given
special lighting treatment

• At large airports, threshold is

identified by a complete line of green
lights

• Lights are of semi-flash type

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 Runway Lighting
• Provided so that pilot gets enough information on
alignment, lateral displacement , roll and distance so
that he can correctly judge his position in space

• Groups of high intensity lights are placed on either

side of centre line of highway

• All lights on runway are of white colour

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Runway lighting
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 Taxiway Lighting
• Adequate lighting aids should be provided so that
taxiways are not confused with runways

• Intersections of taxiways and runway-taxiway

crossing should be clearly marked

• Taxiway edge lights are blue and the taxiway central

line lights are green

• Yellow lights are provided at the intersection of

taxiway with runway

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Taxiway lighting
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Taxiway lighting

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 Apron and hangar lighting
⦿ Apron and hangar areas are flood lit for the
convenience in servicing and loading
⦿ Consists of a projector designed to illuminate a
surface
⦿ Lights mounted in such a way that they do not cause
glare in the eyes of pilots, passengers and service
personals
⦿ Placed at a height of not less than 12 m above the
pavement

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Apron lighting 45
Apron lighting

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 Lighting of Landing Direction
Indicator

⦿ The landing direction indicator is illuminated

with suitable lighting arrangement so that the
airport can be used at night also.

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 Lighting of Wind Direction
Indicator

• Illuminated by four 200 watts angle reflectors placed

1.8 m above the top of the cone

• Reflectors used for providing a continuous lighting at

any position of the cone

• Grants the use of wind direction indicator at night

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Illuminated wind direction indicator

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