What's a Check A ?
With respect to light usage the generally accepted large aircraft SOP is as follows
1) Nav lights on when ac has power
2) red fusalage beacon/stobe on before start
3) taxi light on as taxi starts
4) wing/tail white strobes on when entering runway
5) landing and recog lights on when cleared for takeoff
The process is reversed for landing. I brief this to all my students and then explain that I have slightly modified this protocol to address the realities of light aircraft.
Therefore I teach
1) Nav lights on at power up only at night
2) red beacon on prior to start
3) white strobes on when entering runway
4) landing light on when cleared for takeoff
I do not turn on nav lights during the day because they are so dim I do not feel they contribute anything and I do not turn on taxi/landing light on for the taxi because they cost lots and seem to have a life span measured in nanoseconds.
One of my pet peeves is the generally poor use of lights by GA aircraft at night. Usual sins are as follows
- taxing with strobes on at night
- not turning off landing light when passing head on, on taxiway
- not turning off landing light when at hold short line
- fogetting to turn on nav lights when flight starts in daylight but ends in darkness. To get around this problem which in the interest of fairness I have been guilty of, I teach my students that the cockpit light knob is always paired with the nav light switch. That is if you need to turn on the panel lights to see the instruments it is always time to turn on the nav lights. As a final note if the aircraft has a cowl mounted landing light it should never be on for the runup as the vibration will sibnificantly shorten bulb life.