Nav lights on for the taxi
 

It's come to my attention of late that anyone who labels themselves as 'under the IFR' are taxiing and flying from start to shutdown with nav lights on. I'm just curious to know the reason why. (If it's SOP related then your bound by the company to do it). Is there a well hidden CAAP somewhere on this or are people deliberately just wanting to burn globes or copy those glorious flight sim games. In particular PA44/BE95/76s training flights...

Without ref to any particular rules, if they are LEDs, I'll use them at all times. You can actually see them during daylight hours.

TIME DRIFT
What p:mad:sses me off are inconsiderate w:mad:nkers who insist on taxiing around at night with their strobes f:mad:cking up everyone else's night vision.

AIRMANSHIP, KIDDIES!

Entering the runway, strobes, & landing lights ON, transponder to ALT.
(TCAD alerts from taxiing aircraft also fall under the inconsiderate/ignorant category.)

If you read the one CAR in isolation, then it's easy to see why. Read the one prior as well.

And from memory, daylight ops in a PA44 with NAV lights on isn't the smartest thing to do, particularly on base.....

And Senecas.:rolleyes:....must be a Piper thing.......

Found the ref for taxiing with strobes on...

Yes, one particular Archerfield school, I'm looking at you....

CAR 195(3)
The operator and the pilot in command must ensure that the lights displayed are not dazzling.

Dazzling eh... so which of the following dictionary definitions is the most applicable I wonder:

1. to overpower or dim the vision of by intense light.
2. to impress deeply; astonish with delight.
3. to shine or reflect brilliantly. (umm, isn't that the purpose of a strobe??)
4. to be overpowered by light.
5. to excite admiration by brilliance.

My money is on 2 or 5.:E

Spot on :ok:
I think the GA twr guys have a standard drill now that whenever a Piper pilot reports undercarriage problems they ask "are your nav lights on". To which the reply often is "oh yeah, my gear is down now" :}

Mea culpa - did exactly that just last week. Why is the seneca different to it's single counterparts....! Thank god for mobile phones that work in planes "Doug, I'm orbiting Mildura - any idea why the gear isn't showing down....?"

UTR

Taxiing at night with strobes
 

I believe that some newer aircraft do not have a rotating beacon and have been certified on the basis that strobes act in lieu of same. I wonder, then, what the legality of taxiing with the strobes/rotating beacon off would be.

Just about every flying school in Australia teaches students to say "Wheels down and Locked" in a fixed gear aircraft on the before landing checks.

Some go even further and teach the student to say "Pitch Fine" on final in a fixed pitch propeller aircraft. The common rationale offered to unsuspecting students in both cases is the check is done to give you the practice just in case one day the student MIGHT fly a retractable gear variable pitch propeller aircraft. This despite the requirement to have completed and had certified in the log book an Aircraft Special Design Feature Course for retractable landing gear aircraft where the check of gear down and locked is part of the course.

Significantly these spurious checks are not included in manufacturer's POH for fixed gear, fixed prop types. Don't you just love the myths taught in general aviation?:ok:

More time drift - My favourite is when people preach that MAP should always be kept below RPM to avoid over boosting or something similar in a normally aspirated engine...

:ok:

"Teaching you good habits for when you fly a turbo charged"

or "If you did that on a turbocharged engine you'd kill it" "I wouldnt do that on a turbocharged engine" is always a great response.

so ridiculous
:D

Where I have flown aircraft without a rotating beacon (C404, C402) I have used the navigation lights in lieu of to show that the aircraft is active (for want of a better word). Strobe lights are turned on when entering the runway and turned off when exiting same. Annoys the beejeesus out of me to see strobe lights flashing away on an aircraft as it taxies past. :=

I noticed the MFS Warriors (most don't have rotating beacons) start to taxi with the strobes on a couple of years ago. I imagine they were given some sort of directive to do so, because they all seemed to go from not doing it/doing it overnight.

You're not the only one to notice!!

Guess what the very first thing the flight manual says to check when you are having gear extension problems? :rolleyes:

When you venture to the big smoke, Captain, you'll find most of us have our TXPDR's on AUTO from just before pushback. Something to do with SMC radar being able to see where we are when taxiing :)

When you venture back into the bush, Jarse, you'll remember that most of us haven't got your fancy-pants "auto" wank-wank TXPRs :E

While we're having a good bitch, what is it with the (supposedly experienced) CHTR pilots doing run-ups at the only holding point for a country runway?

...one engine at a time? :rolleyes:

...blocking the only taxiway? :ugh:

...on a 38 degree day? :eek:

...with a screaming 25 kt wind... at right-angles to the engine nacelles? :{

Actually, Hugh, I've flown everywhere from Naples and Graz to Dubai, Kolkatta and KL, so I'll clarify.

The context in which I am referring to is GA operations, say, short finals into Lombadina when you start getting traffic alerts because the gumby taxiing (who you couldn't see for the trees at the other end of the runway and who doesn't respond to your straight in broadcast) hasn't touched the standby switch since it was installed at the factory.:=

Making the broad assumption that you've had your bad habits, such as the aforementioned example, kicked out of you by the time you got to airlines, I was not having a go at RPT ops.

Been to bigger smokes than Australia has.
Ps, I'll be checking out Taipei on Friday.

Seem to recall that may have been mentioned as a factor in weakening Nomad empennages to the point where one fell off?

I've actually seen a 414 drag it's nosewheel sideways on a full power one engine runup.:E

Charter, RPT or simply Airwork. It's a bit cowboy running up two engines together isn't it. Certainly not mentioned in the various manufacturer's twin POH I have read. If fuselage "twisting" was a problem then presumably that would be in the Limitations section of the POH?

Why have high power on both engines at same time when it is not necessary. High power on the ground with not much cooling airflow is not a good way to treat an engine? I have seen a pilot running both donks at high RPM on the ground and then having experienced a dodgy magneto RPM drop proceeds to bore it up the suspect engine to clear the plugs with the "good" engine still thrashing away at high RPM... They live among us.

FFS:rolleyes: No.