What are the different airport lights?

Aerodrome (Airport) Rotating Beacon

• White and Green – Land airport.
• White and Yellow – Water airport.
• Green, Yellow, and White – Heliport.
• White, White, Green – Military airport.
• White, Green, Red – Hospital or Emergency Services Heliport.

What are airport rail lights?

Runway Alignment Indicator Lights (RAILS) [AFAIS] Runway alignment indicator lights are sequenced flashing lights. Note that they extend out beyond the centerline lights at 200′ spacing. RAILs and sequenced flashing lights are virtually identical. We call them RAILs when they extend beyond the centerline lights.

What rotating light helps pilots locate airports at night?

In the United States, airport beacons are used to help pilots identify an airport at night. The beacons are operated from dusk till dawn. Sometimes they are turned on if the Ceiling is less than 1,000 feet and/or the ground visibility is less than 3 statute miles (VFR minimums).

What is aeronautical ground lighting?

Aeronautical Ground Lighting (AGL) is the collective denomination for the whole set of ground installed luminaires and related ancillaries meant to be used as visual aids by aircraft pilots and eventually, other users of aerodrome facilities.

What is Beacon light airport?

An airport beacon light is also referred to as an aeronautical beacon or aerodrome beacon. A beacon is a type of visual navigation aid, or NAVAID. They project flashes of colored lights to indicate the location of an airport, heliport, or landmark, or even mountainous terrain similar to obstruction lights.

Where are approach lighting systems located?

[Aeronautical Information Manual §2-1-3] REILs are installed at many airfields to provide rapid and positive identification of the approach end of a particular runway. The system consists of a pair of synchronized flashing lights located laterally on each side of the runway threshold.

What is simple approach lighting system?

A simple approach lighting system consists of a row of lights on the extended centre line of the runway extending, whenever possible, over a distance of not less than 420 m from the threshold with a row of lights forming a crossbar 18m or 30m in length at a distance of 300m from the threshold.

How do glide slope lights work?

A series of static lenses and color filters on the PAPI lights make this happen, and they’re designed to help you maintain a constant glide path angle. As you dip below glide path, the lights (from right to left) will fade from white to red. Most of the time, PAPI lights are located on the left side of the runway.

What are Vasi and PAPI lights?

A precision approach path indicator (PAPI) uses lights similar to the VASI system except they are installed as four lights in a single row, normally on the left side of the runway. An aircraft is on the appropriate glide path when two of the lights are red and two are white.

What is airport beacon light?

An aeronautical light beacon is a visual NAVAID displaying flashes of white and/or colored light to indicate the location of an airport, a heliport, a landmark, a certain point of a Federal airway in mountainous terrain, or an obstruction. The light used may be a rotating beacon or one or more flashing lights.