Matthew Waugh

January 2003

Most of us only really think about the lights on our aircraft at night, especially when they’re not working at night and we know we need them to fly. In this article we’ll look at the various lighting systems on small general aviation aircraft and provide some guidelines for their use.

First of all, what are the legal requirements for lights on our aircraft? For all operations we must have an anti-collision light system that can be either a red rotating beacon (Beacon) or flashing white strobe lights (Strobes). If your aircraft is equipped with one or both of these systems, at least one of them must be working for the plane to be legal for flight.

Secondly, at night, our planes need a working position light system that consists of a red and green lights and a white light visible to the rear (Navigation).

That’s covers the legal requirements. The only other lights we’d commonly find on an aircraft is a landing light and in some aircraft a taxi light. The landing and taxi light are often mounted in the same place and, in general, the difference is mostly in the angle of the beam and the direction of the lights focus.

Guidelines for Use

The following table provides some guidelines on the use of lights both during the day and the night. Keep in mind that at night the strobes and the taxi/landing lights can be blinding to other pilots and so these guidelines limit their use until departure and after arrival. The over-riding focus needs to be on being seen and being able to see, consequently while it’s polite to limit use of lights on the ground, don’t compromise safety in the name of etiquette.

Lights	Day	Night
Beacon	ON either just before or just after engine start.OFF either just before or just after engine stop.	Same as Day.
Strobes	ON taxing onto the active runway for departure.OFF leaving the runway after arrival.	ON taxing onto the active runway for departure.OFF leaving the runway after arrival.TIP – when maneuvering in a limited area at night the strobes can help illuminate the wing tip location.
Navigation	Not Used	ON with the BeaconOFF with the Beacon
Landing Light	If NO taxi light is installed, use is the same as the  taxi light during the day.	ON taxing onto the active runway for departure.OFF leaving the runway after arrival.If no taxi light is installed use as a taxi light during night.
Taxi Light	ON taxing onto the active runway for departure.OFF when no longer required to enhance “see and be seen”.ON approaching the airport.OFF leaving the runway after arrival.	ON during taxi as needed during departure and arrival.OFF when the landing light is turned on.