A320 beacon light

[Flyman35]

some pilots close the beacon lights after N2 is below 10 and some close beacon light as soon as the slides are disarmed which one is the right ?any reference.?

[Founder]

According to FCOM 3.03.25 P2
Beacon Light: "Turn off the Beacon Lights, when all engines have spooled down".

If you ever wonder anything about procedures and what is right, its written into the FCOMS! If people do something that is not written into the FCOMS they are doing something thats wrong!

[Max Angle]

Our SOP used to be turn off beacon below 10% ( I think) N1. Now its turn off once all slides are disarmed. Does it matter?, the change gives our managers a chance to justify their jobs I guess but makes no difference in the real world.

[Ndicho Moja]

Does not the beacon light going off indicate to ground personnel that is safe to approach the aircraft or indicate the engines are about to be started? Always has for me.

ON prior to engine start.
OFF below 20% N1 on shut down......as a guide.

[Aviophage]

The purpose of the beacon light is to warn ground crew that the engines are running or are about to be started.

With this in mind, the beacon light must be switched on before the engines are initialised and should be turned off once the engines have completely shut down. There should be no exceptions to what I have just said and if there are, then you are compromising the safety of ground crew and are in the wrong.

[Max Angle]

Of course I should have said that the slide disarmed requirement is in addition to the N1. It was introduced a while back to try and prevent someone on the ground being injured by a slide getting blown during the disarming process.

How much notice do the ground crew take of the beacon once the engines are shutdown?, not much in my experience so a pretty pointless exercise in my opinion but its not my train set so I do as I am told.

[763 jock]

"There should be no exceptions to what I have just said and if there are, then you are comprimising the safety of ground crew and are in the wrong."

What about the day when your beacon is inop then? Answer please.

[rudderrudderrat]

Hi aviphage,

engines are initialised

What aircraft do you fly? We "start" ours.

[Aviophage]

"What about the day when your beacon is inop then? Answer please."

Then we turn on the strobes instead and contact the ground crew to notify them that the beacon light is inoperative. Of course, we also contact the ground crew and double check that all ground crew are at a safe distance before starting the engines up anyway.

"What aircraft do you fly? We 'start' ours."

A346 and our engine start up checklist is headed as "Engine Initialisation" for some unknown reason. Probably sounds classier. I've been calling for that checklist for so long that nowadays I refer to it in public domain instead of saying 'start our engines'.

[clunckdriver]

When I read threads like this Im so glad Im the boss, thus can put a stop to such crap as "Engines Initialised" and other baffle gab which comes from the mouths of "Sky Gods". Such bull is right up there with the drivel spouted by our civil service drones over here in Canada. As its the 70th aniversary of the Battle of Britain one has to wonder how it would have gone with this stuff, I can hear it now. "OK chaps, run out and initialise your engines, two hundred plus over the South coast, and dont forget to turn you nav lights on so the Erks know you have initialised!"Aviophage, have you thought of becoming a tech writer for Airbus?I see the your last post Aviophage sneeked in as I was typing, but my words still stand. I had the misfortune to be one of the early bus drivers over here, spent so much unproductive time dealing with this stuff trying to get through to Airbus that to re invent the English language was not thier job,just try to fix the bloody thing so it would start in minus forty!

[TURIN]

How much notice do the ground crew take of the beacon once the engines are shutdown?, not much in my experience so a pretty pointless exercise in my opinion but its not my train set so I do as I am told.

We don't go anywhere near the beast until it's off.

Most days I won't even plug the headset in until the beacon is off as some flt crew have "misunderstood" the 'click' of a jack plug initialising as a signal to release the brakes before the chocks are in. :=

The exception of course is if there is an obvious problem with the APU or GPU and an engine is kept running.

And another thing, I thought it was SOP for 'beacon on' before the a/c moves regardless.

[nitpicker330]

It's simple really.

Beacon on:- move out the way!! ( apart from the ground Engineer who should know what is occurring and why )

Beacon off: Safe to approach the aircraft open doors etc etc..BUT with caution for the hazardous environment you are working in!!

It's not rocket science fellas, what ever happened to damn common sense!!
Do you really need to have your hand held over everything?
You are a Qualified Crew, use your Brains.

[FlyKingfisher]

It's simple really.

Beacon on:- move out the way!! ( apart from the ground Engineer who should know what is occurring and why )

Beacon off: Safe to approach the aircraft open doors etc etc..BUT with caution for the hazardous environment you are working in!!

It's not rocket science fellas, what ever happened to damn common sense!!
Do you really need to have your hand held over everything?
You are a Qualified Crew, use your Brains.

Good reply.

[Nubboy]

Just think of it as showing the aircraft is potenially dangerous to ground personnel. :} You want both conditions, doors and engines, made safe before people approach.

Slides being blown onto you is perhaps less lethal than being sucked into an engine, but I wouldn't want either to happen.

Had a catering truck try to attach during pushback once. Beacon on, tug giving lots of black smoke as it took up the load, aircraft starting to move and the number 2 starting to turn, none of these would stop the man on his mission. Scary or what?