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jeudi 18 septembre 2014

Useful Facts About Helipad Lighting

By Jody Leach


Surface level heliports are those for helicopters and are located on the ground. They are characterized by usage of large space. The typical heliport has various helipads. These are the areas that are smooth and flat and are devoted to landing and taking off of helicopters. They are normally located near conventional airports but are in lesser-used areas. Helipad lighting is very important and consists of various forms of lights.

When pilots have difficulties identifying the pilot, beacon lights are used. Beacons are provided in the event that long range visual guidance is deemed necessary. These lights are meant to be located close to the helipad, specifically at elevated locations to ensure pilots are not dazzled at close range. The lights produce equally spaced white flashes. These flashes are normally in the format of letter H of the Morse code.

Beacon lights show at all angles of azimuth, with the intensity being greater than 2500 Cd. The brilliancy control setting should be 3, 10 and 100 percent. Floodlights in helipads are for the illumination of touch down and the area of lift off. These lights are so located as to avoid glare to pilots or the personnel working around the area. The horizontal luminance should be averagely 10 lux. Floodlights also help in illumination of obstacles. Floodlights for obstacles should have a luminance of at least 10cd/m2.

The edges of the final approach and take off area, FATO, are installed with FATO lights. These are omnidirectional, steady, white and usually have intensity of more than 100 candelas. The brilliancy control is similar to that of beacon lights, that is 10, 30 and 100 percent. These are supposed to be placed at the FATO edges at uniform spacing.

The edges of the TLOF are lit with TLOF lights. TLOF stands for touchdown and lift-off area. These lights are steady, omnidirectional and have intensity that exceeds 30 candelas. Ideally, they are placed at the TLOF edges within a distance of 1.5m off the edge. For surface-level heliports, the lighting is placed uniformly at intervals that do not exceed 5m. The lights that are rectangular should be 12 and the circular ones 14.

It is always important to display the preferred direction from where the helicopter should approach. This is made possible through the use of approaching lights. They are placed in a straight line along the preferred direction. They are steady, omnidirectional and white or flashing. When identification of the helipad is made difficult because of other lights in the surroundings, flashing lights come in handy. The system should not be less than 210m in the event that approach light system for non precision FATO is offered.

Aiming lights come in handy when it comes to approaching particular points before going to the TLOF. They are usually steady, white and omnidirectional. Their intensity is above 100 candelas. Their brilliancy control is similar to other lights.

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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