wrote:
Having just crossed the border, and visited a few non-towered airports
in the US, I'm afraid I may have done some injustice by using the PCL
pilot controlled lighting a bit too much. Knowing the somewhat
precarious financial state of those airports, and the electricity hog
the lights can be, I'm wondering if its use is required at all. Can
the USA procedures experts here please comment on the following?

1. Any legal requirement to use them during the day (that is, any
FAR)? Is it an AIM recommended procedure?
2. Will 3 clicks ALWAYS turn off the REILs or approach lights?
Will 3 clicks sometimes turn off the runway lights, and if so, any way
to know this in advance?
3. Why not have an ability to turn them all off, runway lights
and approach/REILs?

Just trying to help save Uncle Sam some $

Stan

The only reference to turning things off in the AIM is the runway end
identifier lights. Those will sometimes shut off with 3 or 5 clicks,
depending on the type. Everything else should be on with either 3, 5
or 7 clicks.

Now I flew into a private strip a while back. They had their lights
set up to shut off with 8 clicks, I think (maybe it was 9). But then
Uncle Sam wasn't paying for those lights.

I suppose most places don't have a shut-off feature so that you can't
turn the lights off while someone else is trying to land or take off.
That would be a safety problem.

I don't know that there is a legal requirement to turn on
pilot-controlled lights at all. I've heard of yahoos landing on unlit
runways at night. I guess that's illegal in the "careless and
reckless" sense (and you'd waste much more money by crashing and taking
out the lights that you didn't bother to turn on). But during the day
there is certainly no requirement.

I wouldn't bother trying to save Uncle Sam a bit more money. PCL
systems already do that for you. The extra 15 minutes that they stay
on is nothing compared to being on all night long if they weren't pilot
controlled to begin with.