FAA Helicopter/Vertiport Lighting Conference - Proceedings
Abstract
As the vertical flight industry moves into instrument flight rules (IFR) operations at heliports, it has become apparent to both FAA and the users that there is research and development to be done on heliport lighting. With the civil tiltrotor now in production, there is also work to be done on vertiport lighting. The lighting industry has developed a variety of technologies that appear promising as candidate heliport and vertiport lighting components. Still, there are many questions still to be answered. For example: Which technologies can best provide the different visual cues needed by the pilot? What lighting configurations are most effective in various scenarios? To what criteria should some of these lights be certificated? Some of these and other questions will be answered by the marketplace. Other questions should be addressed via research and development. In looking at the heliport lighting research done by the FAA over the last decade and the resulting advisory circular guidance, it is clear that there are many more questions than answers. To answer these questions would require much more in the way of resources than what is likely to be available in the near future. With this in mind, the FAA sought the advice of the aviation community on how we could best proceed. A two-day technical conference was the mechanism used. This report documents the proceedings of this conference.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Nov 01, 1999
- Accession Number
- ADA370873
Entities
People
- Robert D. Smith
Organizations
- Federal Aviation Administration