DC-8 Lights question

[Jess-8]

Hi all

First of all I'd like to introduce myself as this is my first post on PPRuNe.
My name is Jessy, I live in Belgium and love avaition since my first ever flight from Brussels to Tenerife on a B734 of Virgin Express. In 2004 I started for the first time with flight simulation with FS2004. Now in 2011 I'm a hardcore simmer, building my own hybrid cockpit and love flying oldies, the DC-8 is my favourite, hence my username Jess-8. I have had the great oppurtunity to see the DC-8 still flying about 2 years ago at Ostend Airport with Meridian Airways Ltd. This aircraft fascinates my in every way and the DC-8-63(C)F is the one which I prefer, old style howling JT3D-7 engines, sometimes a mix of 2 JT3D-7 outboard and 2 JT3D-3B inboard.
But was has been bugging me is the following. The strobe lights, are they automatically switched on together with the navigation lights or do they have a different switch because so far I was not able to identify any on pictures neither can I find any info on the net about the issue ...
I hope someone can help me and clear this out.

Thank you in advance

Jess

[chiglet]

AFAIK, [most] aircraft have seperate switches. strobes on the ground can temporarily blind other airport users. [Vehicle drivers and other workers, as well as other pilots] Strobes are normally switched on just before the a/c lines up for departure.

[ErwinS]

Indeed the strobe light have their own switch.

I assume you use the aerosim classic freighters vol. 2 package for flying the DC-8 in FS2004? I fly it on FSX in Meridian colours :-)

Sad that they are now gone.....

[Jess-8]

yes I'm aware of that.

Problem is that the DC-8 has the following switches
http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/5420/dc8lights.jpg
could it be that it's the switch of the anti-collision lights? But where do the beacon lights go then which need to be on as soon as you want to start your engines? Are they incorporated in the ground flood?

@ErwinS (http://www.pprune.org/members/312853-erwins): I do indeed fly aerosim model, modified HJG panel (it'll be a fully stand alone panel once) and my own updated aerodynamics. May I ask where you got your paint from?

[Jess-8]

watching this video:
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and this one:
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one of my previous suspicions becomes reality ...
do the DC-8's lack the wingtip strobes?

and:
The anti collision light system (either strobe lights or rotating beacon)...source: Navigation light - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navigation_light#Aviation_navigation_lights)

so strobes are NOT mandatory as far is I understand this

further more, the image below does not show anything concerned to strobes, only anti-collision lights. In the before take-off part they speak about exterior lights but this is referred to the landing lights and wing lights ...

http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/5783/aomdc8lights.jpg

so the DC-8 has no wingtip strobes ...

[ErwinS]

At flightsim.com you can get the Meridian repaint for the aerosim DC-8.
Why are you using the panel from HJG? I find the one from aerosim good enough.

Rgds.

[CV880]

Strobe lights were a customer option on the DC8 and many airlines did not have them installed so a diagram of a standard panel will probably not show a strobe light switch. I happened to work for a company that specified them on their aircraft but serviced many DC8's that did not.
In reality they were not strobes as we now have on all modern aircraft but were a high intensity lamp reflecting down on to an oscillating mirror that projected the beam horizontally as it oscillated giving a flashing impression.

[Jess-8]

@CV880: aha, that explains, thx for the heads up

@ErwinS: so, how do you like my repaint xD
I use part of the HJG system for it's start sequence, you have the possibility to connect external power and air. There are a few (really a FEW) systems modelled on the HJG panel which just MUST be available on the DC-8. But on my custom panel the some more systems are being introduced such as hydraulic switches which do what they are supposed to do etc

[matkat]

They were operated by a seperate switch next to the anti-coll. lights it was a 3 position switch off-on-auto, certainly were on the DC8-73 I worked that flew from Brussels for Southern air transport.

[Jess-8]

@matkat: thx. do you have a picture by any coincodence?
can you maybe also explain me how the auto stand works?