Landing Light SOP

Before I had a car with automatic daytime running lights (05 Corolla), I
routinely turned on my headlights during the day. DRLs are mandatory in
Canada and many other countries. Motorcyclists keep their headlights on
during the day to enhance visibility. The "camouflage" theory is faulty.

Bob Gardner

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
ups.com...
"c. The FAA has a voluntary pilot safety program, Operation Lights On, to
enhance the see-and-avoid concept.

SNIP

Thanks, Bob.

I wonder, though -- do landing lights in the daytime really do that
much for you? I seem to recall reading that bright lights coming at
you during daylight hours actually tends to camouflage what is behind
them.

(Groping back into the distant recesses of my history minor here...)
Didn't the British actually experiment with using extremely bright
lights to hide their aircraft during the day?
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"

On 29 Oct 2005 11:04:26 -0700, "Jay Honeck" wrote
in .com::

I've never used my landing light on departure, except
near major airshows (OSH, Sun N Fun) where it's often requested.

Do others here do so?

Due to the congested airspace within 100 miles of Los Angeles, I
always burn a landing light to enhance conspicuity.

It rumored (in some AC if I recall correctly) that a landing light
will reduce the probability of a bird strike.

In article .com,
"Jay Honeck" wrote:

Interesting. I've never used my landing light on departure, except
near major airshows (OSH, Sun N Fun) where it's often requested.

Do others here do so?

I use my landing light a lot, especially in somewhat hazy conditions,
or when ATC has called me as traffic for someone else.

knock on wood I've replaced one landing light since 1994
knock on wood
knock on wood
knock on wood
knock on wood
....

--
Bob Noel
no one likes an educated mule

In article ,
"Bob Gardner" wrote:

Before I had a car with automatic daytime running lights (05 Corolla), I
routinely turned on my headlights during the day. DRLs are mandatory in
Canada and many other countries. Motorcyclists keep their headlights on
during the day to enhance visibility. The "camouflage" theory is faulty.

except when *everyone* is using lights. :-(

--
Bob Noel
no one likes an educated mule

"c. The FAA has a voluntary pilot safety program, Operation Lights On,

I'm always amused that things like this get names like "Operation such
and such".

Jose
--
Money: what you need when you run out of brains.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

"Bob Gardner" wrote in news:xPKdnc7ST_orV_7eRVn-
:

Before I had a car with automatic daytime running lights (05 Corolla), I
routinely turned on my headlights during the day. DRLs are mandatory in
Canada and many other countries. Motorcyclists keep their headlights on
during the day to enhance visibility. The "camouflage" theory is faulty.

Bob Gardner
Snipola

I can speak from experience that no matter how bright the lights
are on a motorcycle (day OR night), most people just don't see them.
Observation is object based and most drivers are looking for cars,
not bikes. You tend not to see what you aren't looking for.

But the camouflage theory is based on what the background is. If the
background is a brightly lit blue sky, then lights can be used to
camouflage an object on a hill (or an aircraft) becasue the lights
are reducing hte contrast between the bright sky and the silhouette
of the object against the background. I've seen this demonstrated
on one of them discovery-like channels.

Brian
--
http://www.skywise711.com - Lasers, Seismology, Astronomy, Skepticism
Seismic FAQ: http://www.skywise711.com/SeismicFAQ/SeismicFAQ.html
Quake "predictions": http://www.skywise711.com/quakes/EQDB/index.html
Sed quis custodiet ipsos Custodes?
Supernews sucks - blocking google, usenet.com & newsfeeds.com posts

In article .com,
"Jay Honeck" wrote:

I was taught (in the USA) to use the landing light whenever in the
vicinity of an airport, which is not to much different to the above.
That includes take-off as there's often traffic on a reciprocal
heading.

Interesting. I've never used my landing light on departure, except
near major airshows (OSH, Sun N Fun) where it's often requested.

Do others here do so?


If I was inflight my landing light was on, except at night when I only
used it for takeoff and landing.

--
Dale L. Falk

There is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing
as simply messing around with airplanes.

http://home.gci.net/~sncdfalk/flying.html

In article . com,
"Jay Honeck" wrote:



I wonder, though -- do landing lights in the daytime really do that
much for you? I seem to recall reading that bright lights coming at
you during daylight hours actually tends to camouflage what is behind
them.

(Groping back into the distant recesses of my history minor here...)
Didn't the British actually experiment with using extremely bright
lights to hide their aircraft during the day?

Do headlights hide an oncoming car? No.

The US did some work using a bank of lights facing forward to hide an
aircraft for ASW work. From what I've read it was effective, but was
never implemented.

--
Dale L. Falk

There is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing
as simply messing around with airplanes.

http://home.gci.net/~sncdfalk/flying.html

"I seem to recall reading that bright lights coming at you during daylight
hours actually tends to camouflage what is behind them."

Of course, this begs the question: "If you are 5,000 or 6,000 feet up in the
air, and you see a light coming toward you, do you really need to be
concerned with precisely what is BEHIND the light?"



"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
ups.com...
"c. The FAA has a voluntary pilot safety program, Operation Lights On,
to
enhance the see-and-avoid concept.

SNIP

Thanks, Bob.

I wonder, though -- do landing lights in the daytime really do that
much for you? I seem to recall reading that bright lights coming at
you during daylight hours actually tends to camouflage what is behind
them.

(Groping back into the distant recesses of my history minor here...)
Didn't the British actually experiment with using extremely bright
lights to hide their aircraft during the day?
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"

On Sat, 29 Oct 2005 12:17:09 -0700, "Bob Gardner"
wrote:

Before I had a car with automatic daytime running lights (05 Corolla), I
routinely turned on my headlights during the day. DRLs are mandatory in
Canada and many other countries. Motorcyclists keep their headlights on
during the day to enhance visibility. The "camouflage" theory is faulty.

I've observed lights camouflaging an oncoming car. It was in Florida.
The Canadian cars with headlights on virtually disappeared under the
bright Florida sun while the cars without headlights on were clearly
visible. Most of the countries that require DRLs are northern
latitudes where the winter days can be quite dim or even dark all the
time. In those places, I think that DRLs probably help. Maybe the U.S.
too, in winter.

I remember seeing a TV documentary about camouflage that detailed the
U.S. Army's experiments with camouflaging a tank by lighting it up.
The film demonstrated that it actually works under the right
conditions.

I think the landing light should be used when it will actually help.
On a bright CAVU day it probably won't help much. During rain, low
clouds, or haze, I've seen landing lights make an aircraft much more
visible. On a hazy day, I've had the tower call my aircraft to another
pilot and I'd hear only "looking" as a response. Then I snapped on my
landing light and immediately heard the other pilot report visual
contact. It does work.

The rest of the time, I leave the landing light off. The damn thing
burns out so frequently that running it when I don't need it only
wastes bulb life. Then it won't be there when I really do need it.

RK Henry