Airbus A320WL flying at night with no lights
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Join Date: Feb 2005
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Airbus A320WL flying at night with no lights
Wonder if someone can answer me a question. I wont mention the airline or destination in case I get someone into trouble. I'm very curious about what happened on a recent night flight we went on.
We flew on an Airbus A320WL.
During the climb I noticed the beacon and strobes were on, as soon as we reached cruise altitude these we're turned off until we started our descent.
I thought this was really unusual as every other flight I've taken these have always remained on throughout the flight. Is this now standard procedure for night flights?
All the best,
We flew on an Airbus A320WL.
During the climb I noticed the beacon and strobes were on, as soon as we reached cruise altitude these we're turned off until we started our descent.
I thought this was really unusual as every other flight I've taken these have always remained on throughout the flight. Is this now standard procedure for night flights?
All the best,
Join Date: Oct 2003
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The 'new' winglet design on the latest A320 series repositioned the strobe lights to the front of the winglet and they are now more visible from the cockpit and potentially more distracting.
It's always been in the rules to turn lights off if they are causing a distraction, so not common but not unheard of.
It's always been in the rules to turn lights off if they are causing a distraction, so not common but not unheard of.
In my experience of operating the A320WL, with the retrofitted aircraft you get a distracting flashing from the strobes on the 'glareshield'. It seems to have been sorted once they started fitting WL on the production line.
I've never heard of anyone switching off the beacon for the same reason as they are on top and bottom of the fuselage?
I've never heard of anyone switching off the beacon for the same reason as they are on top and bottom of the fuselage?