Aerodrome lighting

[Timocracy]

I am currently researching the topic of aerodrome lighting and am interested if anybody could help me.

I'm interested in things like;

How can you judge visibility on final using the approach lights? Is the vis good enough for Straight in? or circling approach? how to tell the difference?

What lights should you see at the minima in order to continue approach?

What happens to the minima if one of the interleaved lighting circuits fails? ( and a reference)

Any other information or things you don't think of would be great. Particularly practical or operational information with references.

[blueloo]

or...minimum lighting at night for takeoff (CAVOK)? (ie if interleave circuit fails, or more fail?)

[Daysleeper]

Try ICAO Annex 14 which covers aerodrome lights and markings.

Also the ICAO manual of RVR assessment (i think!) has a good bit on why lights need to be maintained and this pdf (http://www.skybrary.aero/bookshelf/books/452.pdf) for what can happen if you don't (also includes lots of references.)

[The Green Goblin]

How can you judge visibility on final using the approach lights? Is the vis good enough for Straight in? or circling approach? how to tell the difference?

From the DH you should be able to see the threshold lights and touchdown markers

What lights should you see at the minima in order to continue approach?

On a standard approach however long the runway is gives you an indication of what the Vis is like.

What happens to the minima if one of the interleaved lighting circuits fails? ( and a reference)

If in IMC times the required Vis by 1.5. If in VMC, no requirements.

[an3_bolt]

As the Greeny said.

reference: AIP ENR 1.1-92 (58.4.8) titled "Partial Runway Lighting Failure".

[Worrals in the wilds]

If you want details of Australian regulations about what aerodromes are required to provide in terms of lighting, what outages are acceptable and so on, you should be able to find them in the Casa Part 139 Manual of Standards, chapter 9. :)

Civil Aviation Safety Authority - Rules and Regulations (http://casa.gov.au/scripts/nc.dll?WCMS:STANDARD::pc=PC_90406)

[MakeItHappenCaptain]

How can you judge visibility on final using the approach lights? Is the vis good enough for Straight in? or circling approach? how to tell the difference?

Humphrey Maltman (RIP (and not due to a flying accident)) was always a big one for measuring the distance from the minima (on correct appch gradient) to the required vis and comparing this on the aerodrome plate (which is to scale) to see exactly what part of the approach lighting, number of runway lights etc. should be visible if you had the required vis.

Have heard others using rules of thumb (can see the HIALS, t'hold markings, touchdown markers).

[Timocracy]

In the ERSA

"OTHER LIGHTING
ABN ALTN 8 WG"

Can someone give me a quick decode? is it 8 sec cycles ie 4sec white 4 sec green? or 8 sec white, 8 sec green?

[NOSIGN]

Timocracy,

approach visibility minima criteria is the slant distance at the MDA from a std 3 deg profile to the runway threshold plus 160 metres (I think - verify for yourself). So if you're at MDA inbound of an appch, on correct profile and can see 2... almost 3 lights spaced at 60m, then it's likely that you'll have the min vis for the appch.

Use your common sense and some rules of thumb, some of which you may find here and you'll be right.