Airport Structure Flashcards
What are PAPI lights?
Precision Approach Path Indicator.
It provides visual approach slope information. It provides a white and red projection pattern along the desired descent path to the touchdown point. It is generally operated both day and night. These lights are visible from about 5 miles during the day and up to 20 miles at night. Also, the red lights are closest to the runway.
What is the ALS?
Approach Landing System. It provides the basic means to transition from instrument flight to visual flight for landing. Pilots flying on days with very low visibility will probably notice these lights before the runway.
What is ALSF- II used for?
Commonly used for precision approach runways, and it is generally 2,400 or more from the threshold.
The ALS includes flashing lights called _______
Sequenced flashing lights. Emit a continuous white light from the end of the approach light to the 1,000 foot bar
VASI
The visual approach slope indicator
On the surface, both PAPI lights and VASI lights provide the same information: telling pilot whether they’re on or off the glideslope. VASI lights differ from PAPI lights in that they have the red over the white, rather than the colours being in the same row. These lights are visible from 3-5 miles during the day and up to 20 miles or more at night.
The areas of an airport controlled by an air traffic controller are called?
Movement areas
What are runway edge lights used for?
Runway edge lights are used to outline the edges of runways during periods of darkness or reduced visibility. These light systems are classified according to the intensity or brightness they are capable of producing: they are the High Intensity Runway Lights (HIRL), Medium Intensity Runway Lights (MIRL), and the Low Intensity Runway Lights (LIRL). The HIRL and MIRL systems have variable intensity controls, whereas the LIRLs normally have one intensity setting
The runway edge lights are what color?
White.
On instrument runways, yellow replaces white on the last 2,000 feet or half the runway length, whichever is less, to form a caution zone for landings.
The lights marking the ends of the runway emit _______
red light toward the runway to indicate the end of runway to a departing aircraft and emit green outward from the runway end to indicate the threshold to landing aircraft.
Runway centerline lights are spaced at _______
50-foot intervals on large precision runways to improve visibility.
When viewed from the landing threshold, the runway centerline lights are _______
white until the last 3,000 feet of the runway. The white lights begin to alternate with red for the next 2,000 feet, and for the last 1,000 feet of the runway, all centerline lights are red.
Touchdown zone lights are installed on some _______
precision approach runways to indicate the touchdown zone when landing in reduced visibility conditions. They consist of two rows of “transverse light bars” symmetrically placed across the runway centerline.
Touchdown zone lights system _______
consists of steady-burning white lights which start 100 feet beyond the landing threshold and extend to 3,000 feet beyond the landing threshold or to the midpoint of the runway, whichever is less.
Runway edge lights use different _______
colors to provide distances to pilots during landings or takeoffs.
• White lights indicate the runway edge.
• Red lights provide additional distance information.
• Unbroken red lights mean the aircraft is within 1000 feet of the threshold or start of the runway.
• At 500 feet, red lights alternate with white lights.
• At 100 feet, all red lights change to white, indicating the very end of the landing zone.
