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vendredi 19 septembre 2014

Useful Facts About Helipad Lighting

By Jody Leach


Surface level heliports are those for helicopters and are located on the ground. They are characterized by usage of large space. The typical heliport has various helipads. These are the areas that are smooth and flat and are devoted to landing and taking off of helicopters. They are normally located near conventional airports but are in lesser-used areas. Helipad lighting is very important and consists of various forms of lights.

Identification of the helipad is very important, which is why beacon lights are used. Provision of the beacons is important in the event that long-range visual guidance is thought to be important. These lights have to be placed in elevated areas so that there is no chance of the pilot getting dazzled at short range. Repeated series of white flashes are emitted by the beacon light. These flashes are spaced at equal intervals. They are in the form if letter H, with the Morse code used.

Beacon lights show at all angles of azimuth, with the intensity being greater than 2500 Cd. The brilliancy control setting should be 3, 10 and 100 percent. Floodlights in helipads are for the illumination of touch down and the area of lift off. These lights are so located as to avoid glare to pilots or the personnel working around the area. The horizontal luminance should be averagely 10 lux. Floodlights also help in illumination of obstacles. Floodlights for obstacles should have a luminance of at least 10cd/m2.

FATO lights are supposed to be placed at the edges of the FATO (final approach and take-off area). The lights should be steady, white, omnidirectional with an intensity of 100 cd and more. The brilliancy control setting ought to be 10, 30 and 100 percent. They normally are placed along the edges of the FATO at uniform spacing.

The edges of the TLOF are lit with TLOF lights. TLOF stands for touchdown and lift-off area. These lights are steady, omnidirectional and have intensity that exceeds 30 candelas. Ideally, they are placed at the TLOF edges within a distance of 1.5m off the edge. For surface-level heliports, the lighting is placed uniformly at intervals that do not exceed 5m. The lights that are rectangular should be 12 and the circular ones 14.

The direction of approach is displayed using approaching lights. These are placed on a straight line on the preferred direction. They are supposed to be steady and omnidirectional. They should be flashing in case the helipad cannot be easily identified because of lots of light around.

Aiming lights come in handy when it comes to approaching particular points before going to the TLOF. They are usually steady, white and omnidirectional. Their intensity is above 100 candelas. Their brilliancy control is similar to other lights.

For the display of the windsock and direction of the wind, windsock lights are used. Heliports are supposed to have at least one indicator of wind direction. The one to be used at night has to be illuminated.




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