Making Light of DREADLE

Quest: Can you think of any other enhancements? Perhaps using the aircraft's own lighting to identify the intruder?

Answer: Yes there are a few. Look at this URL

This thread below may be mildly relevant to your proposed DREADLE piece (inasmuch as strobe lights aren't (by regulation) on until you line-up for take-off and neither is the transponder for TCAS considerations). The strobes are blinding for night vision and the transponders are normally Ground-Air sensing off-switched to reduce scope-clutter.

In the phantasmagoria of twinkling ground lighting, I always found that the strobe light was the singularly best (and sometimes only) visual aid in detecting another aircraft on the ground in the middle distance . But of course it doesn't work in fog or heavy precipitation (though it will effectively penetrate mist, light rain and darkness). But it certainly doesn't work when it's not on (and NOT ON because you / he missed the fact that you were transgressing onto a runway). So perhaps another sensible adjunct to the Dreadle System should be this:

" All aircraft are to be fitted with detector-operated strobe and landing lights that will auto-illuminate when entering or crossing a Dreadle-armed runway." (i.e. a runway that has been armed for a landing or departing aircraft, i.e. that one should not be entering).

We all have infra-red detecting security lights that turn on when you drive into your driveway (or exit the front/back door) and similar audio- or IR-activated lights in the rooms of our houses. It's not mind-blowing technology to imagine a short-range treadle-activated transmitter that would illuminate strobes (and so adding to the automated VHF radio broadcast of a "WHOOP, WHOOP, WHOOP ululation followed by: "Dreadle Alert/Dreadle alert. Caution. There has been an unauthorised runway incursion.").

The benefits? Well you not only get to immediately hear about the dull bastard, he gets to instantly know it's him and he gets lit up like a Xmas tree. Avoiding that sort of notoriety should keep both pilots and controllers on their toes - as well as averting the odd accident. And we all know that that accident is just around the next corner. If you don't believe that, you cannot read tea-leaves.

http://www.pprune.org/cgibin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=3&t=002555

Author

Topic: more lights

fernando
Just another number

Member # 7944

posted 15 October 2001 13:11

Which lights do you turn on for landing and take off?

Is there a difference between day and night regs?

Posts: 42 | From: luxembourg | Registered: Oct 1999 | IP: Logged

Checkboard
Line Trainer (moderator)

Member # 585

posted 16 October 2001 04:35

All aircraft that fly at night are fitted with:

Position lights - steady green on the right wing, steady red on the left wing and a steady white light that can be seen from behind the aircraft, which may be located on either the tail or the wing, depending on the aircraft.
An anti-collision light (A flashing red beacon) - used to warn people that the engine is running.
A landing light or lights, which are like the headlights on a car - they pretty much shine straight ahead.

Large aircraft (like airliners), and some smaller aircraft, may also be fitted with:

Strobes - bright flashing white lights to help in picking the aircraft out in the sky
Taxi lights - a light that shines at a lower angle than the landing light, so you can see where you are going on the ground.
Runway turn off lights - these shine out to the front left & right sides of the aircraft in order to see runway exits and the like.
Logo lights - these are place on the wing or tailplane, and point back at the aircraft's vertical stabilizer to light up the airline's logo.
Wing lights - these shine along the leading edge of the wing, so that the pilot can see if any ice has been collected.
Passenger evacuation lights - these only work if the aircraft is being evacuated, and they illuminate the ground around the exits.

In airline operations day or night the anti-collision light operates any time that the engine is running and the strobes are operated any time that the aircraft is either on the runway or in flight. The landing light (and at night the logo light) is usually turned on below 10,000 to improve the visibility of the aircraft.

At night, the position lights are always on, the logo light (if fitted) is on while on the ground or in flight below 10,000 feet, the taxi light is used taxiing - when it isn't pointing at any ground staff, the landing light is turned on entering the runway for take-off and turned off exiting the runway after landing, and the other lights are used as required.