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Old 10th Mar 2009, 12:09
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flyingins
 
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Fargoo, Mr Fixer....

Look at any Airbus with its lights on next time it's dark and you will clearly see that the two forward facing, wing-mounted strobes flash alternately (in other words, not at the same time). The rear-facing strobe only flashes once.

This in not an optical illusion.

Certainly both of the forward facing ones achieve a flash-rate of 55 per minute but each does so a fraction of a second apart. This is then followed by the illumination of the upper and lower "beacon" lights, a short pause and then the cycle commences again.

The +/- 5 flash "tolerance" will have no bearing on the synchronicity of the strobe's flash because, as you say Fargoo, they are all powered "at the same time from the same source". This would only be an issue if the two-forward facing strobes were powered from different sources.

All +/- 5 means is that one A320 may have strobes that each flash 57 times a minute, while its sistership's may only flash 54 times a minute - it's a manufacturing tolerance.

The AMM clearly states that the forward facing strobes combined produce twice the number of flashes as the rear-one. This number wasn't derived on the assumption that the human eye is being tricked!

Booksmarts are great but in this case? WYSIWYG.
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