Aircraft and airport lighting
Position and anti-collision lights on the airplane, and the color code that runs the airport after dark.
13 min read · Night flying
After this lesson you can
- Read another airplane's position lights to judge its direction of flight.
- State what 14 CFR 91.205(c) and 91.209 require and permit for lights at night.
- Identify an airport's type from its rotating beacon color pattern.
- Use a visual glidepath indicator (VASI or PAPI) to judge whether an approach is high or low.
Every light on the airplane and on the airport at night is there to answer one of two questions: where is that aircraft going, and where exactly is that runway. Both questions have color-coded answers, and the code is standardized nationwide -- once it is learned, an unfamiliar airport at night stops being a maze of anonymous lights and becomes a diagram.
This lesson covers both halves: the lights the airplane itself carries, and the lights the airport uses to describe itself -- its type, its runway edges and ends, its glidepath, and its taxiways.
The rest of this lesson
- 1.Position lights: reading another airplane's direction
- 2.Anti-collision lights and the landing light
- 3.Airport beacons
- 4.Runway and threshold lighting
- 5.Visual glidepath indicators: VASI and PAPI
- 6.Taxiway lighting and pilot-controlled lighting
- 7.Obstruction lighting
These 7 sections, their figures, the checks along the way and the end-of-lesson quiz come with the CPL track. Paid once, yours for good.
Key terms
Try to recall each definition before turning the card.