How far out can you typically turn on lights?

FORANE

FORANE

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FORANE
Flew into my home field after dark again last night. Tried turning on lights a few times. Flew over the top of the field before they came on. Had to go around at night with dark mountains in the traffic pattern.

How far out can you night owls typically get lights to come on?
 
FORANE said:
Flew into my home field after dark again last night. Tried turning on lights a few times. Flew over the top of the field before they came on. Had to go around at night with dark mountains in the traffic pattern.

How far out can you night owls typically get lights to come on?
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What are ya doin’ flying amongst mountains after dark?
 
Try slowing down with your clicking. Use firm clicks (hold the mic an extra moment) and give an extra moment before you do the next click.

Pretty rare that I can’t kick them on from 10-20 miles out. Biggest issue i see is caused by people doing it too damn fast. You need to hold that mic for a moment.
 
I typically try to get them turned on when I’m around 4-5 miles out or thereabouts, sometimes closer. I might not be able to see if they’re on or not until I’m closer to 2 miles out, depending on my position from the field, due to the beacon getting obstructed by the tree line.

As Jesse said, slow, firm clicks work best. Try for 1 click per second.
 
Does anyone know the actual timing parameters of the click-sensing equipment? I agree that too fast is more common than too slow, but I wonder how slow I can do it and still expect results. I think slower (longer clicks with longer spaces between them) is probably easier to pick up at a greater range, as well, so I think maximizing that is a good idea.

As far as range, last winter I was working on night currency so I was in the pattern and heard 5 rapid clicks from a regional jet probably 20 nm away (he was reporting 20 or so east of his destination, which is 30 northwest of us) to turn on the lights at an airport we share a CTAF frequency with. The airport below me apparently picked up 3 of those 5 clicks because the lights immediately went to low intensity. So with a good radio and some altitude, 20 nm is doable.
 
iamtheari said:
Does anyone know the actual timing parameters of the click-sensing equipment? I agree that too fast is more common than too slow, but I wonder how slow I can do it and still expect results. I think slower (longer clicks with longer spaces between them) is probably easier to pick up at a greater range, as well, so I think maximizing that is a good idea.

As far as range, last winter I was working on night currency so I was in the pattern and heard 5 rapid clicks from a regional jet probably 20 nm away (he was reporting 20 or so east of his destination, which is 30 northwest of us) to turn on the lights at an airport we share a CTAF frequency with. The airport below me apparently picked up 3 of those 5 clicks because the lights immediately went to low intensity. So with a good radio and some altitude, 20 nm is doable.
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My primary instructor used to turn on all the airport lights in the area this way. Three thousand AGL over flat ground and a lot of lights can be turned on. If there is terrain masking then things change.
 
I'll click 'em on about five miles out. Any earlier and I'm worried they'll time out when I'm on base!
 
Always make sure to click them on again when you're in the pattern. I was back from getting night current, landed and heard a Lear calling that he was entering on a long straight in. By the time I was parking and tied down the lights turned off and I heard the Lear go around.

Turns out he didn't click them back on after I did so they timed out and he got to burn a few AMU of fuel
 
iamtheari said:
Does anyone know the actual timing parameters of the click-sensing equipment? I agree that too fast is more common than too slow, but I wonder how slow I can do it and still expect results. I think slower (longer clicks with longer spaces between them) is probably easier to pick up at a greater range, as well, so I think maximizing that is a good idea.

.
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Does the AIM section on pilot controlled lighting count as anyone? The clicks should be done in a 5 second time frame. That’s plenty of time for the max 7 deliberate clicks.
 
Usually its 10 miles out if I'm unfamiliar with the area so that I can use them to spot the airport instead of looking for the dark spot
 
Occasionally I'd clicked 'em up to 20 miles out if I couldn't pick up the field. Cool to see the SFL come on, really stand out. "Ah there it is"!
 
At an unfamiliar field I will turn on the lights around 15 miles out. Then click them down to medium intensity of final. Yep, had the lights time out a few times before I learned....

I remember as a student pilot in Florida, 7 clicks and several airports light up all at once..... hmmmm.... which one am I going to.??
 
The speed of the clicks and the spec for it is very slow and deliberate. Mostly because when these systems first started to be available the squelch circuits on the receiving end were horrendously slow on some of the radios used.

Rapid-fire almost always gets missed.

The controllers the friend of mine made, it was all adjustable but the default was fairly slow.
 
Just to state the obvious (since it wasn't obvious to one guy I flew with) the number of clicks matters as well. 3, 5, & 7 are the official numbers of clicks to do the job. I always use one extra.

A guy I flew with just clicked "a bunch of times" and couldn't figure out why his 10 clicks took the lights back to low. ;)
 
Sounds like I was clicking too fast. I flew a slight modification of the published approach even though it is my home field. There really are mountains in the traffic pattern and at one time the FBO would leave the lights off (not even controllable by mic clicks) unless the pilot had completed their night checkout and requested ahead of time to leave the lights on.
Wiki says there are 2 types of lighting and indeed as referenced by one post the clicks need to be within 5 seconds:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilot-controlled_lighting
 
A dozen years ago, or so, I was based at Harrison, AR. Flippin and Mountain Home are both within 30 miles to the east and all are on the same frequency. If I was practicing night landings, and at the same time someone was doing the same at one of those two fields, we would/could control each other's lights.

One night, a pilot at Flippin and I got into a high/low intensity battle. He liked high, I liked low. There was no other traffic on CTAF and we were joking about it the entire time.

"No, I want high"

"No, I want low!"
 
FORANE said:
at one time the FBO would leave the lights off (not even controllable by mic clicks) unless the pilot had completed their night checkout and requested ahead of time to leave the lights on.
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Can they do that? What about the transient folks flying in from out of the area?
 
Ryanb said:
Can they do that? What about the transient folks flying in from out of the area?
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I don't know the answer but I've never been into an uncontrolled airport that didn't leave the lights on if not pilot controlled. Military fields we'd turn off the lights at some locations.
 
mscard88 said:
I don't know the answer but I've never been into an uncontrolled airport that didn't leave the lights on if not pilot controlled. Military fields we'd turn off the lights at some locations.
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Yeah. That’s what I was thinking. The FBO doesn’t have the authority to turn off pilot controlled lighting just because their own students are not checked out at night....? Somehow that doesn’t seem legal. I’m with Tim on this one.
 
Zeldman said:
I remember as a student pilot in Florida, 7 clicks and several airports light up all at once..... hmmmm.... which one am I going to.??
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When in cruise, that’s a way to pass the time. Light up several airports, then look at a sectional to figure out which is which.

It works well here in the midwest, with many small airports located outside of the bright lights of cities.
 
Clark1961 said:
What are ya doin’ flying amongst mountains after dark?
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Trying to get home; I commute to work by the plane. This whole time change has caused it to be dark too early for me.
 
Ryanb said:
So they leave the lights on sunset to sunrise, just on low intensity unless you call ahead of time?
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No, they had a switch in the FBO that would allow the runway lights to work or not work if a pilot clicked the mic. The lights would function as you are accustomed when the switch was in the on position. They used to only leave that switch on when a local pilot who had completed their night checkout requested they do so that night. This was done because there is a mountain immediately north of the runway extending 3000 above the runway, and there are smaller ridges and hills to the East and South of the runway yet right in the typical pattern one would fly. They have since abandoned turning off the lights and just leave them on all the time now but to an unfamiliar pilot, this airport at night could be deadly.
 
FORANE said:
No, they had a switch in the FBO that would allow the runway lights to work or not work if a pilot clicked the mic.
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What’s the purpose of having that, though? That definitely seems like something beyond their authority. Anywho, as you mentioned before, with the shorter days, I’ve found myself flying more at night than I ever have as well. Lots of fun, but of course brings its own set of challenges!
 
I would guess there would a NOTAM if an airport turn off the airport lighting. I think there are airports that have restrictions on take off and landing after a certain hour in the evening until a time in the morning.
 
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