Posted: 1/12/2008 2:17:49 PM EDT
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If you put an airplane on a conveyor belt.....just kidding! A few days ago I was driving home from work at about 4:30 PM and I notice a Southwest flight coming in to land. He was about 2 miles out or so and his landing lights were flashing. Not like there was a short but like a blinker, a steady purposeful flashing. I have never seen that before and wondered what it was about. Any clue? |
Yeah, I live right next to the airport and it was a first for me too. But this wasn't a malfunction. It was flashing at about the same rate as a blinker on a car. |
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are you sure they were his landing lights? could it have been his rotating beacon? (these are red) there is no operational reason to do this, on short final the pilots are concerned with landing and not messing with a light switch. btw: i have 700hrs in the 800 model. |
interesting, do these increase in intensity in any weather/lighting conditions as soon as you turn them on? |
They are a visual anti-collision measure for other pilots, they make the airplane more visible during all times of the day/night. I don't think they change in lighting intensity. |
No, white light mounted on front landing gear. |
| Most of the aircraft I fly on government contracts are required to have "pulse lights", which increase the visibility of the aircraft. These systems can work with the landing lights or dedicated strobe lights. They can even be connected to a Traffic and Collision Avoidance System so that the lights start flashing automatically when the TCAS detects nearby traffic. |
That was the main reason for their design. I dealt with 2 companies that pioneered their application into aviation. Visibility and lamp life were their two main selling points. |
