RUNWAY LIGHTING

(case study
and
standards)

Submitted by :GOPAL TOMAR

JYOTI SINGH
VARUN VERMA

 FACTORS AFFECTING AIRPORT

LIGHTING:
Airport classification
Amount of traffic
Availability of power
Nature of aircraft using the airport
Type of night operation plans
Type of landing surfaces provided
Weather condition, etc.

 TO ACHIEVE UNIFORMITY AND TO GUIDE PILOTS FOR UNFAMILIAR

AIRPORTS, COLOURS AND GENERAL ARRANGEMENT OF AIRPORT LIGHTS
ARE STANDARDIZED.
AIRPORT LIGHTS ARE KEPT CLEAN, WELL-MAINTAINED, CHECKED
REGULARLY FOR FAULTY BULBS AND REPLACEMENT.
TOUGH AND LABORIOUS JOB, MAJOR AIRPORT CONTAINS 30,000 LIGHTS
PROVISION OF EMERGENCY POWER SUPPLIES, WHICH CAN TAKE OVER IN
SECONDS IN CASE OF ANY POWER FAILURE.

AIRPORT SIGNS :

 ELEMENTS OF AIRPORT LIGHTING:

AIRPORT BEACON
APPROACH LIGHTING
APRON AND HANGAR LIGHTING
BOUNDARY LIGHTING
LIGHTING OF LANDING DIRECTION INDICATOR
LIGHTING OF WIND DIRECTION INDICATOR
RUNWAY LIGHTING
TAXIWAY LIGHTING
THRESHOLD LIGHTING

Various Lights and Their Functions

 AIRPORT BEACON:
Beacon- strong beam of light- used to indicate any geographical
location- situated slightly above the horizontal- rotated to produce
flashing light to an observer.
It gives out white and green flashes in the horizontal directions 180
apart. Flashes are visible for the pilot from any direction of approach and
it indicates the approximate situation of an airport equipped for the
night operations.
Rotates at six revolutions per minute- mounted at top of terminal
building or hangar.

 Obstruction not cleared yet- then separate tower is provided for installation
of rotating beacon.
Code beacon- indicates light provided sufficiently high to clear all
obstructions.
It consists of two 500 watts bulb with green colour screen.
Continuously flashes a morse code signal designating the airport.

 APPROACH
LIGHTING:
Before runway begins- sequence of high-intensity lighting arrangement for a length of
900m.
Helps pilots to check if the aircraft is centered correctly of not.
Gives way to touchdown zone lights from threshold of the runway.
Normally mounted on pedestals-varying heights-to accommodate any irregularities in
ground- ensuring the lights themselves are in level.

 ARRANGEMENTS ADOPTED FOR APPROACH LIGHTINGS:

1) Calvert system
2) ICAO system

1) Calvert system:
Widely used in europe and other
parts of the world.
Developed by e.S.Calvert in great
britain.
In this, there are six transverse
rows of lights of variable length
placed at a c/c distance of 15om.
In this, the roll guidance is
principally provided by the
transverse rows of lights.

2) ICAO
system:
Known as centre-line configuration.
In this, there is only one crossbar 300m from the threshold.
In this, the roll guidance is provided by bars 4.2m in length,
placed at 30m c/c on the extended centre-line of the runway
and a single crossbar 300m from the threshold.
The 4.2m long bars consists of 5 closely spaced lights to give
the effect of continuous bar of light.

 BOUNDARY LIGHTING:
Entire boundary of the
airfield is provided with
lights at a c/c distance of
about 90m with height of
about 75cm from the
ground.
If fence is provided along
the boundary, then these
lights should be placed
inside
the fence
at a
For
indicating
hazardous
approach, the boundary lights are provided with
distance
of lights
about 3m.
red
marker

 LIGHTING OF LANDING
DIRECTION INDICATOR:
The landing direction indicator is
illuminated with suitable lighting
arrangement so that the airport can be
used at night also.

 LIGHTING OF WIND DIRECTION INDICATOR:

The wind direction indicator is
illuminated by four 200 watts angle
reflectors placed 1.8m above the top
of the cone for providing a continuous
lighting at any position of the cone.
This arrangement grants the use of
wind direction indicator at night and
during bad weathers.

 RUNWAY
LIGHTING:
After crossing the threshold, the pilot must complete a touchdown and roll
out on the runway.
The planning of runway lighting is carried out in such a way that the pilot
gets enough information on alignment, lateral displacement, roll and
distance.
The lights are so arranged so that they form a visual pattern which the pilot
can interpret easily.
During night landings, flood lights were used in olden days. But now runway
edge lights are adopted.
Narrow gauge pattern- the most precise runway alignment which is widely
used.
It makes use of centre-line and touch down zone lights for operations in very

 Black hole effect: as the pilot crosses the threshold, and continues to look along
the centre-line, the principal source of guidance, namely, the edge lights has
moved far to each side in the peripheral vision. As a result, the central area
appears black and the pilot is virtually flying blind for the peripheral reference
information.
This can be eliminated by adopting the narrow gauge pattern of the runway
lighting, the central portion gets illuminated and the black hole effect is partly
eliminated.
The narrow gauge pattern forms a channel of light of 18m width up to 1140m
from the threshold and beyond this distance, the closely spaced lights are placed
along the centre-line of the runway extending up to the other end of the runway.
All the lights provided on the runway are white in colour and of flush type, i.E.
They do not protrude more than 1cm above the surface of pavement.

 RUNWAY EDGE LIGHTS:-

Single row of white lights bordering each side of runway and lights
identifying the runway threshold.
Three intensity levels: high intensity (hirls), medium intensity runway
lights (mirls), and low intensity runway lights (lirls)
Elevated edge-lights identify the runway edges during
visibility conditions
Some are pilot controlled, some atc controlled

adverse

 CENTERLINE LIGHTING
Centerline lights are rows of 5
lights, 13.5 feet wide,
typically spaced 100 feet
apart, which extended 2,400
feet from the threshold if the
glide slope is 2.75 degrees or
greater, 3,000 feet if the glide
slope is less than that. At a
military field they could be as
short as 2,000 feet.

PHOTO: CENTERLINE LIGHTS

 ROLL BARS
Two additional light bars are
placed outside of the
centerline light at 1000".
Each additional bar would
have 8 lights, giving a total
of 21 (8+8+5).

FIGURE: ROLL BARS

 SEQUENCED FLASHING
LIGHTS
Sequenced flashing lights
flash in sequence toward the
threshold at a rate of twice
per second and terminate at
the 1,000 foot roll bar.

FIGURE: SEQUENCED FLASHING LIGHTS

 RUNWAY ALIGNMENT
INDICATOR LIGHTS
(RAILS)
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 "sequenced
flashing lights" when they
are located with the
centerline lights. We call
them rails when they extend
beyond the centerline lights.

FIGURE: RUNWAY ALIGNMENT INDICATOR LIGHTS

 SIDE ROW BARS

Side row bars are three red
lights each on either side of
centerline and begin at 1,000
feet remaining.

FIGURE: SIDE ROW BARS

 TERMINATION BARS
The termination bar is 50 feet
wide with 11 red lights either
side of centerline and 200 feet
from the end.

FIGURE: TERMINATION BARS

 THRESHOLD
LIGHTING:
Identification of threshold- a major
factor for decision of the pilot to land
or not to land
For this reason, the region near the
threshold is given with special
lighting treatment.
At large airports: threshold is
identified by a complete line of green
lights extending across the entire
width of the runway. They must be of
semi-flash type, i.E. Protruding not
more than 12cm above the surface.

At small airports, the threshold is

identified by four lights on each side of
the threshold. They can be of elevated
type, i.E. Protruding more than 12cm
above the surface.
The threshold lights in the direction if
landing are green and in the opposite
direction, they are red to indicated the
end of the runway.

Vasi and papi

Visual Approach Slope Indicator
&
Precision Approach Path Indicator
A PAPI and a VASI are very similar in the the information they provide.
The only functional differences between the VASI and PAPI is that the VASI has the
red over the white, the PAPI the white actually goes to the right of the red, and the
PAPI offers higher precision (or more glideslopes depending how you look at it a
larger airliner with a high cockpit may elect to fly a slightly higher glidepath).
The concept is the same though.
Usage:
As the saying goes,
Red over White, you're alright. (on glidepath)
Red over Red, you're dead. (too low)
White over White, you're out-of-sight (too high)
A regular VASI only offers one glide slope and is designed for an aircraft where the
cockpit isn't so high up. However, there is a such thing as two-light PAPI, and a
three-bar VASI. So either of them can really be tailored to fit the costs and types of
aircraft flying to that airport.

In the case of a four-bar PAPI it is higher

precision. Since the PAPI systems uses a
narrower beam of light you must fly the
glide path more precisely than the VASI
to stay on the beam. The PAPI, with its
extra lights, forewarns you when you
are drifting from the desired glide path.
So one red light would indicate slightly above glide slope, two and two would
indicate the normal glide slope, and three red lights would indicate slightly below
the glide slope on a 4-bar PAPI. A Three bar VASI works in similar fashion except
there are only two glide paths with two reds being the lower, two whites the higher.

A Precision Approach Path Indicator (PAPI)

uses four sets of two lamps, placed next to each
other to provide the pilot with 5 distinct levels of
precision (r = red; w = white):
r r r r - below glideslope
r r r w - slightly below glideslope
r r w w - on glideslope
r w w w - slightly above glideslope
w w w w - above glideslope
There's also some degree of fading between red
white. (VASI) uses four sets of two lamps in
A typical Visual Approach Slopeand
Indicator
a box formation (two on top, two on bottom) to provide something more like 3
distinct sets of information:
rr
The more vertical placement of the VASI lights is
r r - below glideslope the origin of the mnemonic "white over white,
rr
you're high as a kite; red over white, you're all
w w - on glideslope
right; Red over red, you're dead".
ww
w w - above glideslope

Airfield Standards

FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION (FAA)

 THE IMAGE BELOW SHOWS THE LIGHTING COLOR SYMBOLS USED IN

IMAGES IN THE REST OF THIS CHAPTER

 RUNWAY EDGE LIGHT SPACING VISUAL RUNWAY END/THRESHOLD LIGHT

 RUNWAY END/THRESHOLD
LIGHTS INSTALLED WITH
HIRLS

RUNWAY WITH A TAXIWAY AT

THE END

 RUNWAY WITH A BLAST PAD

RUNWAY WITH A DISPLACED THRESHOLD

NORMAL RUNWAY WITH A TAXIWAY RUNWAY CENTERLINE LIGHTS WITH A

DISPLACED THRESHOLD GREATER
THAN 700

NOTE: the centerline lights in the displace area should be

circuited separately from the non-displaced area to permit
turning-off during landing operations (not required if approac

 RUNWAY CENTERLINE LIGHTS

WITH A DISPLACED THRESHOLD
LESS THAN 700

RUNWAY WITH A STOPWAY

NOTE: the centerline lights in the

NOTE: stopways look like blast pads

displaced threshold are blanked out

in the approach direction.

but are considered full-strength

pavement and are suitable to support
aircraft during an aborted take-off.

 RUNWAY WITH A DISPLACED

THRESHOLD AND STOPWAY

RUNWAY WITH END TAXIWAY

 RUNWAY WITH A DISPLACED

THRESHOLD AND END TAXIWAY

EXIT TAXIWAY LEAD-OFF LIGHTS

 TAXIWAY CENTERLINE LIGHTS

CROSSING A RUNWAY

RUNWAY END IDENTIFIER

LIGHTS (REILS)

NOTES:
The optimum location for each light unit is in line with the runway threshold at 40 ft. from
the runway edge.
A 100 ft. upwind and a 30 ft. downwind longitudinal tolerance are permitted from the
runway threshold in locating the light units.
The light units shall be equally spaced from the runway centerline. When adjustments are
necessary the difference in the distance of the units from the runway centerline shall not
exceed10 ft.
The beam centerline (aiming angle) of each light unit is aimed 15 degrees outward from a
line parallel to the runway centerline and inclined at an angle 10 degrees above the
horizontal. If angle adjustments are necessary, provide an optical baffle and change the
angles to 10 degrees horizontal and 20 degrees vertical.
Locate the ADL equipment a minimum distance of 40 ft. from other runways and
taxiways.
If REILS are used with VASI, install REILS at 75 ft. from the runway edge. When installed
with other glideslope indicators REILS shall be installed at 40 ft. from the runway edge
unless there are concerns with jet blast and wing vortices.

THANK
YOU