landing light operation

Hi Dean

Glad to see you’re still about and doing what you love. I’m surprised you have the time for simming.

I rather think you’re wasting your breath here though!;)

All the very best to you.

John

Firstly i was asking because i just wanted to make sure i was doing everything correctly, i was previously using the rules given on fs passengers which correspond to what you said about the landing lights,strobes etc but i asked the same question on some other forums and seemed to get a different answer each time.
secondly i want you to know that i have the upmost respect for real pilots, wherever they fly cessna 150’s or Q400s and i never said i didnt like the q400, im just bored of seeing them all the time, back when i was a kid Eastleigh airport had much more of a variety of aircraft types and back then they had no problem allowing kids to sit in the cockpits whilst they got the plane ready for the next flight, i was always in awe at all the instruments and buttons and stuff, i thought how cool it must be to be a pilot to understand all that stuff, well i can only fly on my flight sim but those buttons and swithces and instruments all do the same on a real aircraft and now i understand them to!
I think im stuck in the 80s when planes seemed to have more charachter and the cockpits looked like cockpits, not like an office with computer screens!
as far as the q400 goes it is a good aircraft, i remember when it first started becoming regular here and i was amazed by its climb rate, i have also been a passenger in one from Hannover to Eastleigh and it was a nice flight i especialy enjoyed seeing the strange blue ring vortice things coming of the props, and amazingly the pilots did allow me to look in the cockpit and chat to them for a while it was the first time i had seen a glass cockpit with the screens all on, other times i had been in a glass cockpit they were off so it was quite boring looking at black screens, i chatted to the pilots a while and then one of the cabin crew said i had to leave as the bus was waiting to take the passengers back to the terminal!
I have actualy flown, well taken the controls of de haviland chipmunks and also cessna 150 on several occasions so i do have a little more experience than your average flight simmer who might treat the sim as nothing more than a bit of fun, i take my sim flying quite seriously!
(i also have a q400 in flybe livery and also one in FlyUK livery which is a VA airline i fly for)

Then if you already know the procedure why are you asking?
The HS-748 did not have bags of performance, typically it’s climb speeds were quite slow so I wouldn’t imagine the landing lights would be ripped off below anything like 180kts at the very least.
Regarding your little green tick, to be honest that’s irrelevant, you can interpret this to mean anything you like, I would imagine it gives you a green tick regardless of when you switch them off, and I would bet you would get that green tick whether you switched them off at 5,000ft, 10,000ft, or 25,000ft, and at any speed. Unfortunately this is the limiting factor of freeware flight sim downloads.

Your bored of seeing the DH8D at Southampton? Face it, if they weren’t there then SOU wouldn’t exist in it’s current form today.
And YAWN? Sorry you don’t like them, they are “slightly” more interesting to fly than your computerized version of the HS-748 😉

Your not a pilot are you?! if you fly the plane in your avatar pic then maybe that is the case for the q400 and other modern planes but my hs748 has landing lights that are extended and retracted by an electric motor, not built into the wings and i have been told that at FL10 the airspeed would probably rip the lights of the aircraft, also the procedure checklist for the 748 is correct as it has been developed with real 748 pilots imput and when i am flying with my landing lights on i have a red cross on my procedure checklist next to lights, which turns to a green tick when i swich the landing lights off so i can only presume that means i have done the correct thing.
ps if you do fly q400s, YAWN! they are a decent plane but i am so bored of seeing them at EGHI, bring back the Heralds Viscounts F27’s 748’s and Shorts 330/360’s!!!

Jayviator

What do you think I do for a living? 🙂

The landing lights/10,000ft is not mandatory, i.e there is nothing in ICAO land or JAR land that dictates it, but it is an AC or Advisory Circular stating all pilots should adhere to it to promote safety, now nearly all airlines adopt this procedure in their SOPs
However, with this in mind the manufacturers AOM will have specifics regarding the use of landing lights on the ground, but this can be overruled by local airport procedures.

Thats what i thought but i think those are FS procedures, not real world procedures, as i have found out my 748 procedures are correct for that type and the landing lights should be off after take off.
Maybe its down to whatever aircraft is being used, the 748 is rather dated now and doesnt even appaer to have strobe and taxi lights, just beacon nav and landing lights.
perhaps that 10’000ft landing lights thing is just for modern aircraft?

The correct procedure for landing lights is this.

On clearance to line up on the runway – strobes on – landing lights on.

They remain on until passing FL100 (or 10,000ft) regardless of weather/cloud etc.
They are then switched on when passing FL100 (or 10,000ft) on the way down.

On vacating the active runway – Landing lights/strobe lights off.

Hope this helps

Dean

Thanks, I just learnt from another forum that the 748 procedure is correct, i have been using fs passengers rules which i thought were based on real life rules so it seems they dont have to be on until 10,000ft

Hi

I was always under the impression that Landing lights were kept on until 10,000 ft then turned off if not in cloud etc, in that case it would be down to the discretion of the Pilot in charge. Wether the turning off of lights is dependant on the transitioning altitude I do not know, as transition altitudes differ throughout the world.

As for the taxi lights I would have thought that taxiing with landing lights is a no no, due to the intensity of them burning out the retinas of your virtual airport workers.:)