Thursday, September 4, 2014

Some Heliport Lights Installation Tips

By Kerri Stout


An airport without lighting system would be very dangerous especially at night and would most certainly lead to overshooting the runway or crash on landings. Touchdown areas for helicopters should be lighted by the heliport lights. There are guidelines to use on elevated, ground or rooftop heliports when installing the lighting system and on the helipads which should be adhered to for uniformity all over the world.

The landing direction for a helicopter should be indicated by the approach lighting. This gives the pilot and his team the best approach route for successful landing. The system should have three light rows that are uniformly spaced with 30 metres gap between them. An eighteen meter crossbar should be situated ninety metres away from the area of take-off and approach perimeter that is last. In 4.5 metre intervals perpendicularly bisecting the lines of approach lights are crossbar light bulbs.

Additional light bulbs can be added beyond the crossbar at intervals of 30m if the final approach needs to be made more visible. The light can either be flashing or steady whichever suits the environment best. The light should be at least 210 meters in length if the approach lighting for a non-precision final approach and take off area.

Lighting for the FATO (Final Approach and Take-Off) area should be done at the edges covering all the FATO area if it a ground level heliport. Rectangular or squarely constructed one should have at least 4 lights at the spacing of 50 meters making sure each corner has a light. Lighting for other shapes of FATO should be made at 5 meter intervals and the minimum number of light bulbs to be 10. The light should be white in color and in all directions.

Aiming point light is another set of light bulbs that have to be installed. Their structuring should be to form a wedge like shape that points to the area of landing. The wedge shape so formed consists of not less than six light bulbs with a light at each of the six vertices.

Touchdown and lift-off area light bulbs should consist of perimeter or flood light bulbs. If FATO lights are available luminescent panel light bulbs are used. They are place at the edge or 1.5m from the touchdown area. At least 4 lights on each side at 3m interval for elevated and 5m interval for ground heliport should be installed. The color of these light bulbs should be green and they are set to be steady. Floodlights are place on floor level at a maximum of 10m spacing.

The system will not be complete without taxiway and apron lightings. They are blue in color and omni-directional. A 240V low voltage transformer is used to power them.

The Heliport light installation guidelines set by ICAO are meant to ensure the safety of all. The personnel responsible for the control should have great skills and the equipment should be of the highest quality. The differences in the light intensity needed depending on the general climatic conditions need to be well adhered to. For safety, all the lights need to be at the right place and of the light color.




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