I would imagine hover taxiing in one of them mechanical palm tree things requires both hands and feet so to speak.

So I have a bit of confusion about which bit of your body you used to flick the switch with.

As the writing on the t shirt says: "Happiness is a big chopper".

On a Schweizer, the landing lamp switches are on the cyclic so you use your pinky.

Otherwise, landing lamp on, lift, take off, at 500ft, you're high enough to take a hand off the collective and switch it off.

Cheers

Whirls

Do helicopter landing lights suffer from the same problems as the plank ones?

500 feet! How long does THAT take? ;)

No hands off below that height? What happens if ATC want you to change to another frequency?

I don't mind taking my hand off the collective in the hover, or hover taxy, if necessary (that will possibly start another heated discussion :) ) .

What problems would those be then? :confused:

ShyT, 500ft at Vy of 42kts and I'm still in the circuit :}. And I double dare you to take your hand off the collective in a 5ft hover in an R22. :E

Cheers

Whirls

they are ****e and the bulb goes after 10 hours normal usage.

Making most fixed wing aircraft landing light (fecked) after 15 hours out the hanger. Which it will remain until the next 50 hour

You could double dare me to to be at a 5ft hover in an R22 at all and you know you would win. ;)

(But you made the comment in one aircraft type to take off and jumped into another to hover. You pilots with more than one type in your logbook, eh? :p)

I certainly do remember! That's the main reason I asked the question really, as if they could see us from what, 4 miles away surely it's worth switching it on! :)

I use ATPL when entering the runway for take off :-

A - Altimeter - double check the correct QNH/QFE is set on all the altimeters.
T- Transponder - alt.
P- Pitot heat - on.
L - Landing/stobe lights - on.

When airborne, landing light off once clear of the circuit.

On the way back in, landing light on entering the ATZ and off during the after landing checks once vacated which then becomes F(A)TPL.

F - Flaps - retract
(A) - miss this one out,
T - Transponder - stby
P - Pitot heat - off
L - Landing/strobe lights - off

Easy to remember too as thats what a lot of people are training for !!.

:ok:

funny, i also use ATPL when cleared for take-off but;

A = Approach is clear
T = Transponder ALT sqawking 7000
P = Pitot heat ON
L = Landing light ON

I leave it on all the time below 2000ft unless it is distracting me. As for those who say the bulb blows every ten hours or so, splash out on a better bulb and mount it with the filament being vertical, not horizontal. :ok:

Under the FARs, unless the aircraft has a MEL, aren't you required to have everything working? I know a landing light isn't required for VFR flying, but one of my instructors told me that since the aircraft is equipped with it, if it's inop it has to be placarded inop and a maintenance logbook entry made by an A&P. And if you're going to go through that much effort, you might as well just change the damn thing unless you're not planning to use the aircraft at night for a long time.

I really like that approach, and would much prefer it was that way. But that's not how it works on this side of the puddle...

I use SPLIT on takeoff:
Strobes... ON
Pitot... ON (or not)
Landing Light... ON
Instruments... Check (yet to find out what to do with that to be honest)
Transponder... Mode Charlie

Then for entering the ATZ, good ol' FREDAL:
Fuel... Sufficient
Radio... On, Squelch, Volume, Frequency
Engine... T's & P's, Carb Heat, Mixture
DI... Align
Altimeter... Check pressure & (Assigned) Altitude
Landing Light... On

Just scan the sixpack
Airspeed - zero unless there's a howling headwind, sufficient to lift the needle of its bottom stops (generally 30+ knots or so)
Horizon - level
Altimeter - at 0 if QFE set, at airfield elevation if QNH set (+/- 15 feet or so)
CDI - Ball in the middle, CDI level although it does take the CDI a second or so to get level if you just turned onto the runway.
DI - once lined up should match the runway you're taking off from
VS - zero

Most important ones to get right are obviously the Alt and DI. Those require a manual setting. The others, any deviation from what they should read is a mechanical failure.

Furthermore, my home base has a VOR in line with the runway centerline. I set the OBS to the heading of the runway in use (while listening to the ATIS) and once lined up check that the needle is in the center. You could do the same thing with an ILS. And in our case the ATIS is exclusively on that VOR frequency so it's selected in NAV1 anyway.

Every light aircraft has a MEL. The SEP FAA MMEL which is a devil to find on the net and keeps moving. The UK just references that one.

It boils down to not a lot needing to be working and the landing light is 120days deferrable with a day restriction.

Now hold on a sec, just out of curiosity, do you have a source to such a regulation? Just because there is a MMEL does not mean you can operate with that as your MEL. Are you talking about commercial or non-commercial aviation?

I have not been able to find anything conclusive regarding what does or does not have to work during flight, except vague statements that anything that is not required for the flight can be broken (e.g. landing lights during daytime).

Edited to add: BTW, according to that MMEL, the landing light is Category C, i.e., only 10 days deferable...

MEL is either the same or more restrictive than the MMEL so if there isn't one publish with the aircraft it becomes the defacto MEL. I was pointed towards it by a flight ops inspector for making up a part B.

I don't have a clue if it is commercial and private my only dealings with it were for putting a C172 on a A to A AOC. I have a sneaky feeling it is only for public transport flights.

Sorry its been years since I looked at it so am quite happy that its a 10 day.

If you looking for some form of reference to force your aircraft provider into fixing landing lights this argument has been running for years. They will always quote the minimum required as stated in the ANO. Which to be honest is next to nothing. Its up to you as PIC to accept the aircraft or not. The only thing you can do is vote with your feet and not hire off that provider.


On or off I don't really care, I don't think it makes that much difference compared to some people. I certainly wouldn't bring it up in a debrief either way.

Just to note I am one of those pilots who would run thier own plane with everything working all the time with no snag lists.

I have seen time and time again that if you keep on top of all the little problems all of the time.

a. Keeps pilots happy
b. The aircraft is nicer to fly.
c. Personally I think less go wrong with them if they are getting TLC.
d. Pilots look after them more.
f. It is cheaper in the long run as the plane retains more value.

And every penny of hangarage is well worth it to not only the enjoyment of flying the aircraft but also the offset to the maint costs of keeping it outside.