Landing lights switched on in-flight

[aeroplanejohn]

On Sunday 1March Mrs AJ and I flew SINLHR on BA012. After about 6 hours into the flight (over Pakistan or Afghanistan?) the landing lights were illuminated and remained on for at least a further three hours until we were well past Turkey, according to the moving map display.What was the reason for this action and is it standard operating practice?

[A Very Civil Pilot]

See and be seen, in parts of the world where ATC is not as good as western Europe.

[PAXboy]

For the same reason, if you traverse Africa you will see that your a/c will have the wing-tip white strobe lights operating for most of the time in darkness.

A relative of mine, when starting out as a junior FO, was told my his training Cpt, "If maintenance bitch that the strobe lamps need replacing sooner than they should - remind them that replacing the hull is even more expensive ..."

[Tight Slot]

Wing tip strobes should be on day or night, from the moment the aircraft enters the (an) active runway, all through the flight and untill vacating the runway after landing.

[6chimes]

This may be completely ridiculous but it is what springs to my mind.

In that neck of the woods, will there not be a fair few military flights buzzing about that are not on any commercial corridors. Could it be, they wanted to be seen by them just to be sure.

6

[Nicholas49]

Yes, the reason the landing lights were switched on was they wanted to maximise visibility to other aircraft. It really is as simple as that. As previously mentioned, it is done when flying over countries with less reliable ATC.

[P.Pilcher]

It was standard company practice for us to leave landing lights on when transiting STN -LUT at fairly low level in the London TMA at night for the same reason.

P.P.

[apaddyinuk]

Was flying home from ACC last night, we didnt bother asking passengers to lower window blinds as we knew it would be dark almost right up to landing but forgot about the flightcrew leaving the landing lights on... created a very cool misting effect outside the windows with a very subtle glow! I actually liked the effect!

[NoJoke]

Paddy

Too many G&Ts I'd say.

[BladePilot]

I hope he had them on dipped beam, I just hate it when they use full beam

[WHBM]

Originally Posted by PAXboy

A relative of mine, when starting out as a junior FO, was told my his training Cpt, "If maintenance bitch that the strobe lamps need replacing sooner than they should...

I thought this was an urban legend that had been long put to bed - about landing light bulb life being relaed to the number of hours it is lit. Surely it was discovered long ago it is just a function of the number of airframe hours, as the aircraft vibration has far more of an impact on bulb life than for how long it is lit.

[The SSK]

Recall many years ago on a Finnair domestic sector in the dark in a Convair 440, landing lights came on, followed by sharp turn left, followed soon after by little orange strobe at the same altitude going the other way. Often wondered ...

[Rainboe]

......wondered what?

Strobes are used day and night, continually from cleared to take off to after landing, day and night. Some airlines don't use navigation lamps during the day, but lots do, all the time whenever the aircraft is powered with electrics.

[Contacttower]

I thought this was an urban legend that had been long put to bed - about landing light bulb life being relaed to the number of hours it is lit. Surely it was discovered long ago it is just a function of the number of airframe hours, as the aircraft vibration has far more of an impact on bulb life than for how long it is lit.

Possibly just an assumption about landing lights that has carried over from smaller aircraft that have more basic light designs and tend to fail a lot more often.

[PAXboy]

It might be an urban legend but it had the effect of conveying information to a junior FO. The a/c in question was a BAe J41.

[doncas]

Landing Light Bulbs

We use standard filament landing light bulbs, B737NG. We get about 40 - 50 flight hours out of each bulb...

[1DC]

i was told by a pilot that when flying over areas with no ground lights, wilderness etc., he sometimes put the landing lights on to see if he was flying in cloud..

[Rainboe]

When it is very dark or there are no ground lifghts or stars visible, if you were in doubt whether you were in cloud (which would require engine anti-icing to be on), then you would occasionally illuminate landing lights, or the lower powered 'runway turn off' lights to see. A major factor in any light bulb failure is cold starts and stops, so it is not encouraged to use the highly expensive landing light bulbs frequently. In difficult highly busy areas, you do tend to use them to enhance visibility. One place that springs to mind in near Lahore- the few crossings between India and Pakistan gets overloaded in the middle of the night with the SE Asia traffic heading to Europe crossing the Europe traffic heading to SE Asia, and the need to be in contact with about 3 ATC organisations at the same time.

[WHBM]

Originally Posted by Humpmedumpme

Does Air France have yellow landing lights?

Their aircraft are never clean enough to be able to tell.

[4engines4longhaul]

I was under the impression that the biggest cause of the lights packing up was due to thermal shock, of them being switched on/off in such a cold enviroment. In other words, if you put them on in the cruise for more than a couple of minutes, then keep them on.
I need to get out more.