Aircraft With Solid White Light - Could you actually see the mystery aircraft or did you just see a light? When you mention that the sky was clear and the plane had one solid light, the first thing I thought of was a satellite. Some satellites, like the ISS, Hubble, and a few communications satellites, can be very bright. You mentioned it was around 10pm. That puts the sun just below the horizon which is the perfect position to light up satellites overflying your location. Any chance it could be a satellite?
as you can see i have many questions. i do a lot 737 simulations with PMDG and use angle of attack for information but this fundumental information is just misssing on that website. perhaps you know a good information website? if you know a better more realistic simulation of the 737 please let me know aswell, iam happy with pmdg but doesnit quite match the real simulators where i have been in aswell.
Aircraft With Solid White Light
In addition to the red and green lights, most planes are also fitted with other steady white navigation lights in various locations. Large airliners, in particular, will often have such lighting on the trailing edge of each wingtip. These lights are also sometimes placed along the trailing edges of the horizontal tail. Another popular location is at the very aft end of the fuselage or at the top of the vertical tail. One of these latter lights placed along the aircraft centerline is especially common on smaller airliners and commuter planes. Whatever the location, the purpose of these steady white lights is to improve the plane's visibility from behind the aircraft.
Navigation Or Position Lights
I kept my eyes on this one as I have never seen that particular aray of lights before, I also noticed the plane changing its course, veering away from the always used airport towards the less commonly used one, that only usually lands non commercial flights such as DHL, UPS, and FedEx planes.
Wing inspection lights are mounted on the side of the aircraft fuselage, just forward of the wing root. They are aimed rearward to illuminate the leading edge and top of the wing. Their primary function is to help the crew and maintenance personnel inspect the wings for ice, snow, or damage. The lights are also effective for collision avoidance.
High-intensity strobe lights that flash a white-colored light are located on each wingtip. Most smaller planes are only equipped with one of these strobes near the leading edge just behind the red or green navigation light. Larger airliners may be equipped with an additional strobe at the trailing edge as well. These flashing lights are very bright and intended to attract attention during flight. They are sometimes also used on the runway and during taxi to make the plane more conspicuous.
I really can’t say. It depends on the type of aircraft, what the lights are for, and the specific procedures used by the airline. I suspect the pilots did exactly what they were required to do. Airline pilots fly the same planes several times a day, every day. All of our normal procedures are memorized, rehearsed, and repeated on every flight. While it’s possible they might have forgotten to turn on some lights, most likely, they operated the aircraft in a perfectly normal fashion.
Wing Inspection Lights
Logo lights are usually mounted on the horizontal stabilizer and light up the vertical fin. Older aircraft, like the DC-8, DC-9, and MD-80/90 variants have logo lights mounted on the wingtips. Airlines love to show off their logos at night – that’s exactly what logo lights are for.
I only mention the second plane because we heard it and could see its lights blink. The first plane seemed to have a red light on its left side but my wife did not notice that. The tail light was white and globular, the red light, if there was one, was a thin wand. The second plane was flying at 10,000 fleet minimum. The first might have been as low as 2,000 feet.
White anti-collision lights are too bright to be used while taxiing or waiting in line at a runway. They are distracting (and blinding) to other pilots. Crews turn the lights on just before takeoff, and off immediately after landing.
Watch aircraft as they arrive and depart airport gates. Crews turn on the red flashing lights just before aircraft movement and engine start. The crew turns off the lights after they shut down the engines and set the parking brake.
Strobe Lights
Installed on the wingtips are blinding white, flashing anti-collision lights. They are often called “strobes” and can be seen for miles. It’s easy to spot the white flashing lights on airplanes flying high overhead at night.
There are a lot of airplanes in the sky; especially near busy airports. It’s important for pilots to see other aircraft in the sky and on the ground. Anti-collision lights help make airplanes easy to spot, even several miles away.
Red anti-collision lights are often called “rotating beacons.” Years ago, the lights used a motorized rotating reflector to create the flashing effect. Xenon arc lamps (like a camera flash) replaced the rotating reflectors a few decades ago. Anti-collision lights on new aircraft like the Boeing 787 and Airbus A350 use super bright LEDs to create the required burst of red light. You can tell when an aircraft has the new LED anti-collision lights: the lights stay on longer than the old xenon flash bulbs. It looks more like ON/OFF than a flash; they’re easy to spot.
The colors and position of the lights go WAY back to the early 1800’s when the lights started appearing on ships to enhance safety. In 1848, the U.K. officially established the colors and location of the lights, and by 1897 the port and starboard red and green lights became international maritime law. The same guidelines were adopted for airplanes and now, even spacecraft.
Logo Lights
could i ask you another question? the turnoff runway lights when are they turned on? when the plane enters taxi runways? or are they only turned on during the night for taxi. are they still on when the plane is near the gate? are they on when landing in fog i also noticed that the runway and taxi lights are turned off when the plane is on the holding line of the runway (it goes on after it passes this line) when are the landing lights on? (when the airplane enters the turnway? or are they on during taxi aswell ( heard that those lights can be dangerous about the eyes)
Usually located in the leading edge of the wing root, these bright white lamps are intended to provide side and forward lighting during taxi and when turning off the runway. These lights are most useful at poorly lit airports but are usually unnecessary. The lights can also be used in flight if greater visibility is required.
1. To know about reasons as to why mobile phones are to be switched off in flight. 2. About fuel dumping (Specifically, how safety is maintained while the fuel escapes close to the hot exhaust of the engines) 3. How are pitot tubes protected from water ingestion and ice formation?
Most modern aircraft are equipped with a steady light near the leading edge of each wingtip. When facing forward from the perspective of the pilot, the light on the right wingtip is green, and that on the left wing is red. The different colors make it possible for an outside observer, such as the pilot of another aircraft, to determine which direction the plane is flying. These navigation lights are most useful at night when it is more difficult to tell the direction the plane is going without them.
Anti-Collision Lights White
The Pulsar Navigation, Strobe and Position Lights for aircraft are ideal for use in Experimental, Certified, Commercial, ARFF, and Military aircraft both new and retrofit designs. All the lights in the series meet and exceed the TSO requirement for navigation/position and anti-collision strobe.
Hi, where are you located? I just saw the same thing, never saw that before and decided to come in and see online what it might say. I’m in Marin County California, just north of the GG Bridge
My name is Kagan. Flying a B777 as a first officer. I’ve been searching abt the “use of aircraft exterior lighting” for a research duty in my company. I couldn’t find any regulations abt how to use these lights exatcly. So I would be very appriciated if you can share the some resources of these useful informations.
Hi, I might have an answer as an ex Naval Officer. All ships use what’s called “The Rules of the Road” for navigating at sea. Vessels according to the rules of the road typically turn port-to-port when at sea. This means that if you see a green navigation light out front you don’t turn but if you see a red one you turn so there is a port-to-port passing. Ships will generally always attempt to turn to starboard to avoid other vessels (many captains have view-ports out the starboard side in their cabin). Red typically means “stop” or “avoid” and green typically means “go” so this may be the connection. A ship generally is more at fault for running into another vessel when that vessel was approaching from their starboard. Often times the other vessel may have no fault.
Collision Avoidance Flashy And Colorful
Position lights (the red and green wingtip lights) are not nearly as bright as the white flashing anti-collision lights. It’s very likely you just couldn’t see them at that distance. Even with binoculars it would be difficult. If there was a thin, unnoticeable cloud layer, it might have further obscured the lights. Position lights should be on all the time in flight. If a problem occurs with the lights during flight (faulty switch, burned out bulbs, etc) it will be found during the next pre-flight inspection and repaired before the next flight. No laws broken.
Dear sir, We saw 5 aircraft in the sky traveling around in an area about 3 square miles. They crossed each other,they followed each other for an hour or so with one or two leaving the area only to return 30 mins or so later. My question is…Why did each craft have a strobing light that blinked a different number of blinks than the rest. One craft blinked once. Another blinked twice. One blinked 3 times. Another blinked 4 times and yet another blinked 5 times. What am I seeing?
Every 3 seconds the cycle repeated. The source of the lights seemed to be the same, i.e the same strobe light. Besides, the aircraft was pretty far away or small: with binoculars, it wasn't possible to discern any other strobe lights or a structure of any kind.
From your description, it was probably a high flying airliner. If it had a trail, that was most likely a contrail lit up by the full moon. At high altitude, it’s hard to distinguish the colors of lights – They would have been red and white flashing lights. It would not have been something in orbit, satellites and spacecraft are too high to distinguish lights.
Runway Turnoff Lights
Landing and taxi lights are extremely bright. They use 600 watt bulbs (automotive headlights are around 65 watts). Pilots and maintenance crews are very careful when using or testing these lights, especially at night. Turning on landing lights when ground personnel are nearby can cause severe eye damage.
iam a bit confused about the collision lights. you said in the text that it goes on when the engine starts and is turned off when the engine is running. But in the comments you say that it has to be turned on always!. my question: so all collision lights are on after engine starts and the red one is never turned off (and is on during engine start)?. i also read somewhere that the white lights (strobe lights) are only on when the planes is near the runway because it can distract other pilots. seems to me that this is not true.
A pilot operates pulsing landing lights with a three position switch. The lights are off during cruise. When descending, the lights are switched to PULSE to increase aircraft visibility in congested airspace. The pilot positions the switch to ON a few hundred feet before touchdown so all lights are on, at full brightness for landing.
Just two nights ago, my brother and I noticed a weird flashing light in the night sky out in the countryside. We regularly observe by naked eye aircraft flying by, as well as satellites, and this was not like anything we'd seen before.
Navigation Lights
New, super bright LEDs are now being installed on airplanes. The lights appear brighter than the old incandescent bulbs. The color of the LED taxi and landing lights is a little “cooler” or whiter than the yellowish color of incandescent bulbs. They look great!
Airliner taxi and landing lights are somewhere in the neighborhood of 500 to 1200 watts. I’ve heard that a landing light that is left on for a few seconds on the ground is hot enough to light a cigarette. I’m not really sure the “wattage” of navigation lights or strobes. I found a reference that talks about navigation lights having a brightness of 400 Candelas. It’s a little tricky converting candelas to lumens.
The SunTail LED Anti-Collision Strobe and White Position Tail Light is TSO Certified and uses the same mounting footprint as legacy tail light products. It can be used as a navigation light on virtually any aircraft.
Red-green color blindness may disqualify a person from becoming a pilot. Waivers are available and depend on the type and severity of the problem. If you want to fly and think you have a color vision deficiency, check with an aviation medical examiner. The examiner can determine if you can fly.