Activating Rw lights...just for fun

O.K. so the "activating RW lights" thread got me thinking about the
many times I'd be over (or near) an airport at night and just clicked
them on for the heck of it. Well, sometimes it was to impress a
passenger, sometimes (as a student or new pilot) just to figure out
how it works, and a few times to confirm my location at night. Other
times I did it just to do it, you know, the "wow" factor.

So, have you ever turned on the RW lights just for the heck of it? On
the ground with a handheld? To confirm your location?

Ricky

Ricky wrote:

So, have you ever turned on the RW lights just for the heck of it? On
the ground with a handheld? To confirm your location?

Usually, I only turn them on at airports that I'm planning to land at, but
I've probably turned them on at a couple of airports over the years when I
was near it so that I could avoid their airspace by a wider margin. I'm
more likely to do it when flying around the local area and not using the
moving map software that runs on my laptop.

On Sun, 26 Aug 2007 00:43:44 -0700, Ricky
wrote:


O.K. so the "activating RW lights" thread got me thinking about the
many times I'd be over (or near) an airport at night and just clicked
them on for the heck of it. Well, sometimes it was to impress a
passenger, sometimes (as a student or new pilot) just to figure out
how it works, and a few times to confirm my location at night. Other
times I did it just to do it, you know, the "wow" factor.

So, have you ever turned on the RW lights just for the heck of it? On
the ground with a handheld? To confirm your location?

Ricky

Took my wife on her first night flight a few years ago and as I was
approaching the downwind, thought I'd show her how the lights are
activated. They were on the lowest setting so I clicked 7 times. The
mistake I made was in not hearing/recognizing that a Lear was on
final with the lowest light setting. He was somewhat peeved that I
ruined his night vision at just the wrong time as he was approaching
the field. I will never do that again...



Kirk
PPL-ASEL

Ricky wrote:
O.K. so the "activating RW lights" thread got me thinking about the
many times I'd be over (or near) an airport at night and just clicked
them on for the heck of it. Well, sometimes it was to impress a
passenger, sometimes (as a student or new pilot) just to figure out
how it works, and a few times to confirm my location at night. Other
times I did it just to do it, you know, the "wow" factor.

So, have you ever turned on the RW lights just for the heck of it? On
the ground with a handheld? To confirm your location?

Ricky


I've thought about it, but haven't done it. Most such airports are
scraping to stay open as it is. Running the lights isn't cheap, and
every 15 minutes they are on costs a fair bit. Doing what you suggest
is inconsiderate at best.

Matt

He was somewhat peeved that I
ruined his night vision at just the wrong time as he was approaching
the field. I will never do that again...

I would have politely told the Lear pilot that he needs to get a
life... Other pilots using a public airport with PCL are going to set
the lights the way THEY want them... If his delicate vison can't
handle it he has no business being out there...
I wonder when going into JFK or ORD he orders the controllers to dim
the airport to protect his precious night vision - can you imagine the
controllers response to that, not to mention a sky full of stair
stepped airliners all aiming for the rabbit...

I do agree that turning on expensive airport lights just for yucks, is
not called for... But, the real issue is that someone at 2400 agl
doing a night approach and clicking for the runway lighting is going
to activate every other PCL on that frequency within a 20+ mile
radius... Can't be helped...

denny

You are correct, of course, but let's do the math. Let's figure a 3000'
long strip with runway and taxiway lights every 200' along the edge. That's
15 lights times 4 (two runway, two taxiway) or 60 lights. Throw in another
20 lights for end lights and other miscellaneous lights for a total of 80
lights times 100 watts a bulb. That's 8000 watts or 8 kw. Fifteen minutes
is a quarter of an hour, so you burn 8/4 or 2kwh in that period of time.
Even in the prime daytime a kwh goes for about 15 cents, so you have
"wasted" 30 cents.

I give you that waste is waste, but 30 cents isn't a king's ransom either.

Jim

--
"If you think you can, or think you can't, you're right."
--Henry Ford




I've thought about it, but haven't done it. Most such airports are
scraping to stay open as it is. Running the lights isn't cheap, and every
15 minutes they are on costs a fair bit. Doing what you suggest is
inconsiderate at best.

Matt

Matt Whiting wrote:

I've thought about it, but haven't done it. Most such airports are
scraping to stay open as it is. Running the lights isn't cheap, and
every 15 minutes they are on costs a fair bit. Doing what you suggest
is inconsiderate at best.

Matt

Actually this came up one on another group I post to and it led me to
doing quite a bit of research about the cost of runway lights. I learned
some interesting things about runway lights. The long and the short of
what I learned as it relates to this is that turning on the lights for
15 minutes is just going to cost the airport a few cents in electricity
and maintenance. If they are using LED runway/taxiway lights it's going
to be considerably less than a cent.

I will admit that my research did not include approach lights, so it's
possible that they burn more electricity and cost more to maintain. Also
one problem with LED lights is that they give off so little heat some
airports install thermostat controlled heaters with them to melt
surrounding snow so it might cost a bit more to turn them on on a very
cold night.

On Aug 27, 8:46 am, "RST Engineering" wrote:
You are correct, of course, but let's do the math. Let's figure a 3000'
long strip with runway and taxiway lights every 200' along the edge. That's
15 lights times 4 (two runway, two taxiway) or 60 lights. Throw in another
20 lights for end lights and other miscellaneous lights for a total of 80
lights times 100 watts a bulb. That's 8000 watts or 8 kw. Fifteen minutes
is a quarter of an hour, so you burn 8/4 or 2kwh in that period of time.
Even in the prime daytime a kwh goes for about 15 cents, so you have
"wasted" 30 cents.

I give you that waste is waste, but 30 cents isn't a king's ransom either.

Our ARCAL system uses 10-watt bulbs. I don't think too many
systems would need 100-watt bulbs. We don't need to light the entire
pavement. Ten watts is bright, and I use the lowest setting for
landing so that the glare on the plexiglass (all those tiny scratches)
doesn't make my pupils close up and lose sight of the surface.
But even at 10 watts it adds up. In this area there are a lot of
small airports on the same 123.2 MHz, and if a pilot activates the
lights at one, the lights at a dozen others go on as well. And every
time there's a burst of short transmissions, three keyings within 5
seconds, they reset so that they can be on for hours at a time until
everyone gets tired and goes home to bed.

Dan

"Ricky" wrote in message
oups.com...

O.K. so the "activating RW lights" thread got me thinking about the
many times I'd be over (or near) an airport at night and just clicked
them on for the heck of it. Well, sometimes it was to impress a
passenger, sometimes (as a student or new pilot) just to figure out
how it works, and a few times to confirm my location at night. Other
times I did it just to do it, you know, the "wow" factor.

So, have you ever turned on the RW lights just for the heck of it? On
the ground with a handheld? To confirm your location?

Ricky


I used to fly with a captain that got a real thrill out of turning
on the runway lights over the central valley of California, from 41,000'. He
was not the most considerate person I've ever met, in fact his initials were
MF, and he was retired LAPD.

Al G

RST Engineering wrote:
You are correct, of course, but let's do the math. Let's figure a 3000'
long strip with runway and taxiway lights every 200' along the edge. That's
15 lights times 4 (two runway, two taxiway) or 60 lights. Throw in another
20 lights for end lights and other miscellaneous lights for a total of 80
lights times 100 watts a bulb. That's 8000 watts or 8 kw. Fifteen minutes
is a quarter of an hour, so you burn 8/4 or 2kwh in that period of time.
Even in the prime daytime a kwh goes for about 15 cents, so you have
"wasted" 30 cents.

I give you that waste is waste, but 30 cents isn't a king's ransom either.

True, but let's continue on. Let's say 4 pilots an evening do that.
This is 1460 activations a year unnecessarily or $438 per year. Not a
King's ransom to be sure, but that would buy the gas to mow most
airports for a season or two.

And it is completely wasteful, which is the crux of my objection. And
when you factor in the shortening of bulb life and the labor to replace
bulbs, I'm guessing you at least double the cost of the electricity used.

And when I activated the lights at ELM a few months ago when I arrived
back at 12:15 AM after the tower closed, I got a LOT more than 80
lights. :-) Then again, I was landing so I considered that a necessary
activation. It was pretty funny when I was handed off to approach (this
was an IFR flight) at 11:58 PM and his fist and last transmission to me
was to give me the current weather, wish me a safe landing and say he
was closing the tower!

Matt