Monday, November 19, 2018

Facts About Helipad Lighting Suppliers

By Andrew Jackson


An area set for helicopters to land and take off on land, water or a structure is known as a heliport. A heliport can therefore be simply used to refer to a small airport used specifically by vertical lift platforms or helicopters. Aircraft that take off and land vertically on the ground are known as vertical lift platforms. These aircraft do not necessarily need to cover any horizontal distance for them to take off or land. This is what one should understand regarding helipad lighting suppliers.

Typically, designated heliports usually have one or multiple liftoff and touchdown areas. They may also have certain facilities such as hangars and fuel sources. If the platform is located in a large city or town, it may have customs facilities for clearance and forwarding of cargo. When heliports were first being introduced, advocates hoped that they would become widely adopted, but that has never happened up to now.

One of the major reasons why heliports have not become widespread is that helicopters make a lot of noise when they are landing or taking off. Such levels of noise pollution are unsuitable in urban places. An entire fleet of helicopters can cause devastating levels of noise. That is why even major cities only have a limited number of heliports. Besides being few in number, they are also small in size.

Several other terms have been coined to refer to heliports. These terms include helipad, helideck, and helistop. In order for helistops to be useful at night when visibility is low, they must be installed with lighting that meets specific aeronautical standards. Aeronautical standards are very strict and must be met by all helistops. It is the responsibility of the local aeronautical body in the area to ensure that helipads in that region have the necessary lighting.

The TLOF area is where the heliport perimeter lights are mostly installed. The TLOF can be used to flush mount the perimeter lights. Mounting of lights off the TLOF perimeter is done on extensions that are short and can be made of concrete or metal. Two alternatives of lighting usually exist, that is, apart from the TLOF area being lit, lighting can also be done in the FATO area.

There are a number of conditions that have to be met in order to light the FATO area instead of the TLOF. Both areas can however be lit under certain environmental conditions. The lighting should not act as an obstruction during landing or taking off of the helicopter.

There are certain laws that have established in the United States in order to prevent the lighting from acting as an obstruction. For example, the lights used should not be more than 2 inches above the FATO or TLOF. Another rule states that all lights on the perimeter should be green in color. The use of incandescent and amber lighting was found out to be cause interference with night vision goggles.

Flood lights are also used on helipads to enhance surface operations. However, since flood lights can interfere with flight operations, their use must be limited to ground operations only. Increased life and lower power requirements of LEDs have caused them to be adopted a lot.




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