View Full Version : Air law question about lights
CharlieDeltaUK
6th Apr 2011, 21:13
Can anyone help me with a question arising during my air law prep? I'm looking at the light signals which can be given by a control tower to an aircraft in flight. The texts say that a flashing green light means "Return to aerodrome and await permission to land". I see that a flashing white means "Land at this aerodrome on receipt of steady green light and await further instructions".
I'm obviously missing something, but the effect of these signals seems identical to me. So, what is the difference between them?:confused:
You may not be landing at the same aerodrome that you set off from before the radio failed and you needed to land...so no return to your original departure point.
CharlieDeltaUK
7th Apr 2011, 08:16
Sorry, I don't follow what you are saying. If you are flying close enough to an aerodrome (whether you departed there or not) to see the signal, what is the distinction between the two signals? As the pilot receiving the signal, what do you do differently for the flashing white compared to the flashing green?
Slopey
7th Apr 2011, 09:08
One is "Return to aerodrome", and one is "Land at THIS aerodrome".
They're not necessarily the same aerodrome. For example, if you're up at Lossie/Kinloss where there are two airbases very close to each other, you could take off from one, and then have a radio failure.
If you took off from Lossie, and were to go back there, they'd give you the Flashing Green from Lossie. But if they wanted you to land at Kinloss instead, you'd get a Flashing White from Kinloss.
(You can't "return" to somewhere you didn't depart from).