Originally Posted by
Genghis the Engineer
I've always been of the opinion that the primary objective of a landing light is to enhance visibility of my aircraft to anybody or anything ahead of me - most likely on the runway.
Hence I use it during approach and landing, and also flight in poor visibility, especially at lower levels (say 1500ft or below) where it might provide a small edge in conspicuity.
I don't normally use it on take-off, but reading some of the posts here, I can see why that is a legitimate use, and maybe I should.
As they can be a little fragile, and frankly it's just wasting a tiny bit of fuel, no I don't use it all the time as a conspicuity aid - that's what strobes are for.
G
In Australia it is very wise to use the landing light on take off due prevalence of kangaroos on outback airstrips. In some Pacific islands airstrips landing lights were always used to illuminate wandering drunks and donkeys.
