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Usage of Strobes and Landing Light in GA

In my plane the beacon and strobes are on one switch. They go on before engine start.

Landing light is on whenever the plane moves. Nav lights at night only.

LSZH(work) LSZF (GA base), Switzerland

The flashing mode can be turned on and off. I am not sure how exactly – whether it is a switch or whether it works like most LED torches i.e. you press the on/off switch a couple of times rapidly.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

172driver wrote:

I disagree. Your example is about an observer looking UP into the sky from the ground. That’s very, very different from looking DOWN against background clutter to spot an airplane. Seeing small airplanes against the background clutter of a big city (L.A. in my case) or patchwork fields is a challenge to say the least. Keeping the landing light on during the day definitely helps.

Your welcome to disagree, but think about this. If you are descending onto an aircraft which is below you, it will depend on the direction of the other aircraft. If you are both going the same way, your landing light and the target below will do neither any good. Unfortunately when approaching an airport, aircraft tend to use similar patterns and are going the same way. Think, faster low wing aircraft descending onto slower high wing aircraft from behind.

If you are going opposite directions, the other aircraft will have to be well below the horizon in order to present a contrast with the background. Remember when airborne, the horizon is below your altitude, curvature of the earth and all that stuff. Mountains help because they can be above the horizon and are dark. Anyway this was studied along with use of strobes and found not to improve the ability of aircraft to be spotted. If the aircraft is low enough to have a dark background, they are no threat unless they are climbing into you, and in that case their landing light can help.

On a bright day, even aircraft below you will be extremely difficult to spot and you will see the airplane before you can determine if the landing light is on. During night, dusk, and an overcast or low visibility, the landing light can be seen and is a great aid, but in the bright of the day it is not much help and may hurt. The really pernicious thing is that aircraft on a collision course don’t move against the background and the eye is good at detecting motion against the background.

KUZA, United States

I was taught:

  • Startup with beacon on.
  • Taxi with taxi light (if equipped, else landing light), navlight (at night only) and beacon. Strobes too blinding, so off.
  • When entering runway, taxi light off, landing light on, strobe on.
  • Turn landing light off when passing circuit altitude.
  • In flight, turn on everything when approaching VRPs to enhance “be seen”.
  • Shutdown with beacon on.

The “beacon on” is a reminder that the master switch is on. Helped me a few times when I got out of the airplane (magnetos off), but the beacon was still on…

ELLX

What I noticed during this thread is that most aircraft seem to have more switches for lights than the Aquila I’ve flown so far, which has only “ACL” (anti-collision light), landing light and position light switches. The ACL combines wing-tip strobes+beacon, so there was no way to differentiate between these.

Low-hours pilot
EDVM Hildesheim, Germany
35 Posts
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