Different types of airports lighting are vital for a safe aviation environment. Passengers, pilots and airport personnel, all the assets on the ground need to be in safe conditions. Every airport that provides flight operations needs to have the necessary lighting system in place.This is meant to help pilots during the processes of landing, departure and even aircraft movements. Besides being always visible, it is imperative that they work on a continuous basis regardless of weather conditions.
The airports lighting colours
For years, one of the easiest and most straightforward manners of having a great departure and landing is through airports lighting colours. Some of the best options available are the ones from Signalight that really make the difference.
During the night, every active airport has different colour lights opened and available for pilots to spot them. In most of the cases, they depend on the lighting unit function that can change the whole scenery – in good. One good example in that sense is that every runway edge uses to be illuminated using the white lights. Close to that, you can insert yellow and red lights, both of which can improve take-off.
- The approach lighting system
Not only installed very close to the airport runway, but this system also consists of various lights that provide pilots with the necessary information related to the approach of the runway. In this category enters the PAPI lights, together with the approach lights and many other ones.
In general, the main objective of this specific system relates to identifying where the runway is, especially during low visibility. Most of the time, this system is set up by approach lights that are white or red coloured. They can be either steady or flashing.
- The runway lighting
Many threshold lights help illuminating the runway threshold. They are there to guide pilots reach the part where it is safe to land. At the moment, there are various types of runway lighting options, such as: LED, inset, halogen or elevated. Even so, it is imperative that these are compliant with the regulatory norms, both in terms of photometric and chromaticity.
- The runway centreline lighting system
There is plenty of information to discover even on portable lighting. Most of the options available at good prices are the ones from Signalight. However, before purchasing anything, let’s deep dive into the types of lights that could make a great fit for the airport or heliport.
Besides other ones, the runway centreline lights are usually white coloured. Using them, pilots can have a great guide on how to place the aircraft right onto the central part. This part is extremely important, as pilots could be moving away from the runway if the lighting system is not well put in place.
On the contrary, the runway end lights are specially designed to show pilots prior to any move where the end of the runway is located. Not only are they always informed about that, but it is also budget-friendly to have this information at your hand. Thus, from this point on, they can do no additional aircraft movements.
In general, green is used for indicating runway threshold, whereas red is meant to impose runway end.
- The taxiway lighting system
To spot the taxiway lighting system, you must look for the blue colour airfield ones. They are easy to identify, and their main role is to help in illuminating aprons. Because of money constraints, various airports employ the taxiway reflective markers which are cheaper and even easier to install. In addition, they can be found on Signalight, along with various heliport lighting solutions.
- The obstruction aviation lighting
Last but not least on our list, the obstruction lighting technology from Signalight can do miracles whenever an aircraft is departing or landing in few easy steps. They are red coloured and use some steady lights, which are meant to help illuminate various types of objects that are positioned on the airfield. In addition, on the market there are different options available, which gives a wide variety of available solutions to you. Thus, either on a heliport or on an airport, there is this possibility of always having the proper instruments.
Various types of airports lighting demonstrate their use and importance on different scales. With a bit of time, effort, and proper installation, any airport can get the necessary ones, to be compliant and meet the necessary requirements. At the same time, it is highly important for the whole personnel to know their usage and importance. Those one or two minutes in which you manage to find out something is wrong, before the rest of the crew, could save a lot of lives. Grab all the information you need and use it wisely!
