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Jumat, 12 September 2014

Various Types Of Helipad Lighting

By Jody Leach


Surface level helipads are those that are located at the ground level. Unlike other forms of helipads, they tend to use more space. There are various helipads in a typical heliport. Helipads are smooth, flat and are devoted for takeoff and landing of helicopters. Whereas they are located close to conventional airports, they have to be situated in the lesser used places. Helipad lighting is very crucial and many types of lights are used.

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.

The beacon lights show at all azimuth angles with an intensity greater than 2500 candelas. Brilliancy control setting is 3 percent, 10 percent and 100 percent. For the illumination of lift off and touchdown area, floodlights are used. Floodlights are so placed as to avoid glare to the pilot or persons working around the heliport. Their horizontal luminance ought to be about 10 lux. Further, floodlights serve to illuminate obstacles. A floodlight used for illuminating obstacles should have luminance of 10cd/m2 at a minimum.

The final approach and takeoff area, FATO, should be very well lit as well. FATO lights are placed at the edge of the FATO. These lights are supposed to be white, steady and omnidirectional. The intensity should be a minimum of 100 candelas. The setting of brilliancy control is 10, 30 and 100 percent. These lights are placed on the edges of the area at uniform spacing.

The touchdown and lift off areas, TLOF, also needs lighting. This is where TLOF lights come in handy. These are green, steady and omnidirectional. Their intensity has to be 30 candelas and more and are placed at the TLOF edges. A distance of 1.5m is left on the edges. For surface-level helicopters, lights ought to be uniformly placed at intervals that should not exceed 5m. Lights that are rectangular in shape should be 12 in number and the circular ones around 14.

Approaching lights are for the display of preferred direction of approach. They are located in a straight line along the direction that is preferred. They shall be omnidirectional, steady, white or flashing. Flashing lights are useful in the event that identification of the heliport is difficult because of light in the surroundings. In case the approach light system for non-precision FATO is provided, the system is not supposed to be less than 210m.

To approach certain areas before proceeding to the TLOF, aiming point lights should be used. They are white and steady, with an intensity that exceeds 100 cd. Brilliancy control setting is 10, 30 and 100 percent.

Windsock lights help in displaying the windsock and thus enabling the pilot to see the wind direction. At least one direction indicator is required for every heliport. The windsock light used at night needs to be illuminated so that it is easily seen.




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