Night VFR flying in the UK
Hello!
I was wondering if anyone knew if there was a reason why all airfields I have flow to or from in the UK at night all seem to have unidirectional runway edge lighting.
I did some night flying in New Zealand recently, and they all seemed to have omnidirectional runway edge lighting which was incredibly easy to see when approaching the field, or even when in the circuit. The relative positioning was really easy and really accurate.
Last night I arrived back at Biggin from the west for the first time (normally come back from the east which I find easier), and without VOR/DME/GPS/SkyDemon/ATC I would have seriously struggled to position properly for the join. There isn't a beacon, and at least to me, no obvious lighted features for joining downwind for runway 21 in pitch black night (ie keeping parallel to the runway on downwind, rough heading checked, round xwind accounted for, M25 and Biggin Hill village are good features to look out for, but I found it hard to relate them to the exact runway heading and hence still no definite relative positioning). When coming back from the east you go over the runway, so you can check drift, relative position, more accurate headings etc...
Does anyone know why the runway edge lighting aren't always (or are they ever?) omni-directional in the UK? Is that the case in the rest of the EU too?
Does anyone have any tips other than "look for obvious lighted features", and "take up rough headings"? I am happy flying a DME arc to position to see the lights but surely it should be simpler than that?
Look forward to hearing from you all!
Best.
alex