Lights or no Lights during the day (For small GA AC)

[Spinwmts]

In busy airspace would you ever use your taxi lights during the day to help to be seen? My original flight school it was a SOP (or maybe it was my instructors SOP) to toggle that taxi light prior to take off and leave that bad boy on for the entire flight. I have been told since that these lights have an incredible short life cycle and that you would never use it during the day. Any thoughts?

[photofly]

If you have LED lights it should be no problem. Incandescent lamps will burn out in a hundred or so hours. Ish.

Also LED units use a lot less current so your fuel consumption will be lower.

[Big Pistons Forever]

Make yourself visible at all times. When flying my little Grumman AA1, I leave the landing light on for the entire flight.

[PilotDAR]

Consider that there was WW2 experimentation with the use of lights on aircraft during the day as camouflage:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yehudi_lights

[Big Pistons Forever]

My personal experience has been that landing lights are much brighter than the surrounding sky and so greatly increases the conspicuity of an aircraft

[goingnowherefast]

Also LED units use a lot less current so your fuel consumption will be lower.

100w is 1/3rd horsepower, so negligible effect on an aircraft.

[photofly]

Also LED units use a lot less current so your fuel consumption will be lower.

100w is 1/3rd horsepower, so negligible effect on an aircraft.

Less than that... isn’t 1bhp equivant to 750W?

Still... your fuel consumption will still be lower... just not much.

[gwagen]

Electricity virtually “free”
Light bulbs cheap
Mid air collisions expensive, probably fatal.

Turn the light on, if they burn out frequently replace with even brighter LED.

[Heliian]

Incandescent during the day are much more visible than led.

Turn on and leave on to increase life span, on and off all the time will burn out faster but a pulsing light is even more visible.

746 watts = 1hp

[AirFrame]

All the lights, all the time.

[5x5]

Personally, I've never noticed any increase of visibility in aircraft with the landing light and/or strobes on during the day. The relative darkness of the airframe against the sky is what works for me. Plus, I'm not often looking head on to another aircraft so the landing light isn't that useful anyway. Holding short I've never been unable to see aircraft on final without a landing light on. Perhaps it is a case of something that seems to be common sense but isn't actually?

Here's a report issued in 2008 by the NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) in the States about daytime running lights (DRLs). I realize cars and airplanes aren't exactly the same, but the argument for daytime running lights on cars is pretty much the same as for daytime landing lights on aircraft.https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Pu ... ion/811029

It's 110 pages long, so for anyone not interested in clicking the link, here's the abstract from page 3. I've added the emphasis to 2 key findings.

The analysis evaluates the effects of daytime running lights (DRLs) against three types of target crashes: (1) two-passengervehicle
crashes excluding rear-end crashes, (2) single-passenger-vehicle to pedestrians/cyclists crashes, and (3) singlepassenger-vehicle
to motorcycle crashes. Each crash type was examined at three crash severity levels – fatal, injury, and all
severity. The basic approach is a control-comparison analysis of real-world crash involvements for DRL-equipped vehicles
and non-DRL vehicles. Ratio of odds ratios were used to derive the DRL effects. A 95-percent confidence interval was used
to infer statistically significant conclusions. The Fatality Analysis Reporting System and the State Data System were the crash
data sources used for this analysis.
The analysis found that DRLs have no statistically significant overall effects on the three target crashes. When combining
these three target crashes into one target crash, the DRL effects were also not statistically significant. When examined
separately for passenger cars and light trucks/vans (LTVs), DRLs in LTVs significantly reduced LTVs’ involvements in the
target two-vehicle crashes by 5.7 percent. However, the remaining DRL effects on these three target crashes were not
statistically significant. Although not statistically significant, DRLs might have unintended consequences for pedestrians and
motorcyclists. Particularly, the estimated negative effects for LTVs were relatively large and cannot be completely ignored.

[matt foley]

Nav lights on whenever AC power is on. Rotating beacon on before start to indicate AC is about to start until after shutdown. Taxi light on to indicate AC is in motion. Strobe/pulse lights on prior to entering an active runway for takeoff or cleared across. Landing light/pulse lights on once takeoff clearance received. After takeoff retract lights that have a speed restriction but other than that they stay on. Pretty standard for most operations big and small. Thats my 2 cents.


MF

PS. Look into LED lights and add a pulse feature.

[Spinwmts]

My personal experience has been that landing lights are much brighter than the surrounding sky and so greatly increases the conspicuity of an aircraft

Totally agree; And I'll trade a shorter bulb life span for a longer Life Span any day.

[Heliian]

DRLs in LTVs significantly reduced LTVs’ involvements in the
target two-vehicle crashes by 5.7 percent.

DRL's are a great safety feature and I feel that this report is hugely downplayed. There is a good reason they are required here in Canada, not to mention that the rules will be tightening for new cars in 2021.

Personally, I've never noticed any increase of visibility in aircraft with the landing light and/or strobes on during the day. The relative darkness of the airframe against the sky is what works for me. Plus, I'm not often looking head on to another aircraft so the landing light isn't that useful anyway. Holding short I've never been unable to see aircraft on final without a landing light on. Perhaps it is a case of something that seems to be common sense but isn't actually?

That's all fine if you have a nice clear background and are in a circuit with other circuiters.

It's all the other strays that you can't see or when you're working at varying altitudes in congested areas. Helicopters, float ops, sprayers, farmers, wayward flight students, news gathering aircraft, police aircraft.

Anything to see and be seen to increase safety.

[5x5]

There is a good reason they are required here in Canada...

Can you provide any evidence to support that? Reduced accident rates perhaps that can be tied directly to the introduction of the legislation here? The mere fact that the government has mandated something doesn't mean - at least to me - that there's good reasons.

The study I posted shows quite clearly there is no statistical evidence of any significant change. And I like to take facts and data over opinions any day. So if you want to and feel better with the lights on, go right ahead. It just appears there's no reason to feel any safer because you've done so.

[Heliian]

May

There is a good reason they are required here in Canada...

Can you provide any evidence to support that? Reduced accident rates perhaps that can be tied directly to the introduction of the legislation here? The mere fact that the government has mandated something doesn't mean - at least to me - that there's good reasons.

The study I posted shows quite clearly there is no statistical evidence of any significant change. And I like to take facts and data over opinions any day. So if you want to and feel better with the lights on, go right ahead. It just appears there's no reason to feel any safer because you've done so.

Well, they should do a more recent study.

My evidence is anecdotal in nature. After decades of driving, I believe that lights help to increase your situational awareness in varying light conditions and help others see you. My motorcycle friends would also highly agree.

[dpm]

All lights on at lower altitudes or near airports; trim back above ~6,000 ft AGL (especially the strobes, which really swing the needle on my ammeter).

I remember reading that the landing light also helps cut down significantly on bird strikes (don't remember the source, so I'm not sure how much to trust it). Still, I'll try anything when the geese are migrating.

[aeroncasuperchief]

Dayglo Orange with short burst flares every 30 seconds would do the trick !

[tower controller]

After spending a good chunk of my life in a glass room looking for airplanes I'll offer this from a different perspective.

Lights make you much easier to see, most people don't realize how difficult it is to see aircraft against some sky colors.

Led's are much better than the older lights not only are they brighter but the color contrast is better between the light and the background for a vast majority of the time.

Wig wags like on the CL415 are probably the best for spotting, strobes are probably a close second...

[Squaretail]

I think the only time I don't light myself up all the time is flying something with a generator instead of an alternator, then one just does so when you feel its most prudent. I tend to preserve the old nose mounted landing lights only when I need them as well since they have a bad tendency to burn out, so again use it when its the most needed.

That said, I always have to wonder how much more visible the lights actually make an aircraft. I find most pilots are somewhat visually impaired, since I count on getting cut off on approach several times a year by pilots who don't see a twin on final with landing gear lights, wing tip landing lights, tip and tail strobes all lit up. Might as well have had the cloaking device on...

[CpnCrunch]

I always have to wonder how much more visible the lights actually make an aircraft

I guess is depends where they are looking, but landing lights definitely make aircraft that are coming directly at you very visible. I was driving past the airport today and noticed a plane on 5 mile final with it's landing lights on. Without landing lights on, it would be quite difficult to spot at that distance.

Some pilots have great difficulty spotting traffic even when you point it out to them. The eye test is a pretty low bar.

[Zaibatsu]

For sure they make you more visible. Quite often in the heat haze on final at a controlled airport, I wont see the traffic on final until the landing lights come on when they are cleared.

Can you provide any evidence to support that? Reduced accident rates perhaps that can be tied directly to the introduction of the legislation here? The mere fact that the government has mandated something doesn't mean - at least to me - that there's good reasons.

The study I posted shows quite clearly there is no statistical evidence of any significant change. And I like to take facts and data over opinions any day. So if you want to and feel better with the lights on, go right ahead. It just appears there's no reason to feel any safer because you've done so.

Also from personal experience they make driving a lot safer. Canada probably has more length of two lane highway than most places in the world, and more than a few times I've missed an older or modified vehicle in a shadow when pulling out to pass vs ones with DRLs. 20/15 vision, it's not my eyes.

[5x5]

So far no actual evidence showing lights make it safer. Lots of opinions though. Maybe read the quote from Mark Twain in my signature.

.......more than a few times I've missed an older or modified vehicle in a shadow when pulling out to pass vs ones with DRLs.

I find it hard to believe you didn't see them but are still here to write about it. I would've thought that if you missed even one oncoming car when pulling out to pass there'd be a hell of a head-on accident and you'd be dead.

Brings up a good point though that in the old days before DRLs there weren't massive amounts of head ons. Like the study (facts and data) quoted above shows, no significant difference in the number of accidents with or without DRLs.

Here's an article from the Globe and Mail - https://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-d ... le4199269/

And here's their summary (my emphasis).....

Perhaps the vehicles you've seen recently without DRLs are more than 20 years old, or visiting from the U.S. where this feature is not mandatory. It may also be that this is not overly enforced due to the lack of strong, clear evidence to show that DRLs will significantly reduce accidents.

[pelmet]

So far no actual evidence showing lights make it safer. Lots of opinions though. Maybe read the quote from Mark Twain in my signature.

I don't need evidence from studies, I just leave them on all the time and plan to continue doing so. Some things are jut common sense.

[C.W.E.]

I don't need evidence from studies,

I can't believe this would even be discussed it is more stupid than arguing about the earth being flat.

I just leave them on all the time and plan to continue doing so. Some things are jut common sense.

Exactly to not use them increases the risk of a collision.