Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Obstruction Lighting Is An Essential Part Of Preventing Aviation Collisions

By Cornelia White


Aviation obstruction lighting originally appeared on prominent structures of many different types in the 1930s. A result of the advancement of ongoing night time flights, it quickly came to be a complete essential. In an endeavor to guard ground personnel, the lives of pilots and essential equipment, cautioning programs were applied. Consequently, effective methods, strict rules and enforcement regulations will proceed to be introduced to assure the basic safety of anyone concerned.

Essentially, obstruction illumination simply involves signal lights to deter collisions between planes and numerous objects on the earth. For instance, television, cell phone and radio towers are intended to be more noticeable through the employment of devices that produce high-intensity illumination. While these illumination systems are most prominent when used during the night, they will also be utilized on many taller structures throughout the daytime too.

While individuals on the land might generally not give it so much consideration, there are genuinely a wide variety of hazardous items that aviators must grapple with, each and every day. Aside from communications towers, there are endless other objects that need to be sidestepped which include wind turbines, overly tall buildings and industrial chimney smokestacks. Even certain shorter structures will need lights when very near to airfields in which aircraft fly low.

Numerous procedures for practices are introduced by the International Civil Aviation Organization. By and large, their guidelines are accepted globally. With a program of logical regulations, it is less difficult to protect public safety, prevent dangerous collisions and enforce compliance. By working with the same sets of operations internationally, misunderstandings are significantly decreased.

Over the years, many different light systems have been developed. The type of system used can vary widely depending on each separate application. Some obstructions may only require one single beacon lamp. It may be necessary for larger hazards to be equipped with a number of lights placed in specific configurations. In many cases, a pilot will be able to determine the actual type, as well as the height, of a potentially dangerous object.

These signal beacon devices can be powered by a multitude of light sources. In the past few years, LED technologies have been applied widely throughout the aviation warning industry. Nevertheless, some facilities still depend on lamps which include metal halide, high pressure sodium or common incandescent types. At any rate, they are all exclusively designed to ensure sufficient reliability, high intensity and adequate longevity.

In most cases, these beacons are chiefly red or white. The hue is ordinarily dictated by a mix of factors that could involve particular location, overall height and structure type. A white colored light may not be advisable in certain urban regions, because it could blend in with business oriented and domestic backgrounds. Still, they are very often used far and wide in many rural locations.

It is a prerequisite for high structures to possess obstruction lighting that is compliant to standardized regulations. The standards are essential to provide ease of navigation, basic public safety and safe flying conditions. These systems are definitely vital in avoiding potential life threatening injuries, heavy economic losses and severe property damage.




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