Position/Navigation lights usage

[Goldenrivett]

Originally Posted by N1EPR

My memory may be faulty, but I don't remember having a switch that would turn the nav lights on or off. It the aircraft was powered the nav lights were on. Same as the pitot heat.
I was flying the B757 and MD11.

I was surprised to hear that there was no switch to turn the Nav lights off / on.
What was the function of the switch marked “Position” in this picture of B757 overhead exterior light panel?

I have flown with crews who insisted on having the NAV lights on when we were airborne and in bright sunlight.
I am sure the NAV lights weren’t necessary to show other aircraft that we were powered then - so what is the point of having them switched on permanently?

Our SOPs simply said NAV lights …. As required.

[ok45]

Originally Posted by TURIN

Please, everyone, regardless of your company's SOPs, if the aircraft has power, APU, GPU, or in the case of GA, battery 'ON', leave the Nav/Pos lights on.
It let's everyone know the aircraft is powered, it could be under maintenance, things could move, be cautious.
There are numerous ground ops that require power on and its handy for all of them to look out of the office window and know they don't need to call an engineer or ground handler to get power on for cleaning, catering, refuelling etc.
Also, and this is a personal bug bear, last flight of the day, you guys are off home/hotel whatever after hard days flying. The rest of us have a job to do and on the Airbus in particular, one of those tasks is checking that both Nav light systems work. So that's two walk rounds. It's really annoying when you're half way round the post flight inspection and someone switches the lights off!

Thanking you all in advance. 👍

Hi, sorry but the two walkarounds doesn't sound to be the a good reason, as on most planes I've been you can check NAV lights easily by looking out of the cockpit windows.

And the discussion is about turning it on the whole day in broad daylight, i.e.: even during taxiing and flying.

Don't get me wrong, I have no problems operators have different policies, its their bulbs anyway. But the problem is when people told me to do something that is not required by regulations or company policy, but only based on unjustified personal preference.

[TURIN]

You can't see the tail position light from the flt deck.

[EXDAC]

Originally Posted by N1EPR

My memory may be faulty, but I don't remember having a switch that would turn the nav lights on or off. It the aircraft was powered the nav lights were on. Same as the pitot heat.
I was flying the B757 and MD11.

My MD-11 schematic 33-34-0 shows navigation lights are controlled by the "NAV" switch on the overhead panel. Schematic 31-12-0 show the NAV switch is an illuminated push button to the right of the Left and Right landing light toggles switches and the Nose light toggle switch.

Pitot heat on MD-11 is controlled by the MSC and can be turned off at the maintenance panel located at the first observer station.

(Schematics left over from the days I worked on MD-11 avionics development. I was never qualified on type.)

[ok45]

Originally Posted by TURIN

You can't see the tail position light from the flt deck.

Ah you got me, I was wrong. You do need to get out to check the tail light.

[CaptainSouth]

Nor can you see wintips/nav lights from cockpit of 767/787