Interactive Quiz #15:
Aeronautical Lighting

Flying at night is one of the most enjoyable aspects of aviation...but do you know the meaning of all those colored and flashing lights down there? Clean the cobwebs off your mouse and find out.

by Mike Busch

The questions is this Brainteaser quiz are based on the AIM.

Answer the questions as best you can, then click on the "score" button to see your score and read the explanations. If you don't like your score the first time around, you can change some of your answers and resubmit. To get the most out of this quiz, we suggest you keep trying until you get a perfect score.

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1. Airport beacons flash approximately how frequently?
a. Every second (60 flashes per minute).
b. Every two seconds (30 flashes per minute).
c. Every four seconds (15 flashes per minute).

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2. A beacon that flashes green-yellow-white is used to mark a lighted
a. private airport.
b. heliport.
c. water airport (seaplane base).
d. military airport.

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3. At an airport with an operating control tower, ATC is required to turn on the airport beacon during daylight hours if the ceiling is less than 1,000 feet or the visibility is less than 3 miles.
a. True.
b. False.

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4. A visual approach slope indicator (VASI) provides a visual glidepath that normally assures safe obstruction clearance within:
a. 10 degrees of the runway centerline and to 4 NM from the runway threshold.
b. 25 degrees of the runway centerline and to 4 NM from the runway threshold.
c. 10 degrees of the runway centerline and to 2 NM from the runway threshold.
d. No assurance of obstruction clearance is provided by the VASI glidepath.

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5. At some airports, a three-bar VASI may be installed instead of the more common two-bar VASI. What's the third bar for?
a. To provide redundancy in case one of the other light bars fails.
b. To provide an alternative, steeper glidepath for STOLcraft and helicopters.
c. To provide additional obstacle clearance for high-cockpit aircraft.
d. To make the VASI visible at a greater distance from the threshold during daylight operations.

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6. You are making a night instrument approach in IMC to an airport with pilot-controlled lighting (PCL). Just prior to starting the final approach segment, you should turn on the lights by keying the mike:
a. 3 times within 5 seconds.
b. 5 times within 5 seconds.
c. 7 times within 5 seconds.

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7. Once you've keyed up the pilot-controlled lighting, it will remain illuminated for:
a. 5 minutes.
b. 10 minutes.
c. 15 minutes.

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8. You break out on approach and touch down on the 4,500-foot-long runway. Forward visibility is not very good. During your rollout, you observe that the runway edge lights have changed from white to amber. This tells you that:
a. You have 1,000 feet of runway left.
b. You have 2,000 feet of runway left.
c. You've passed the halfway point on the runway.
d. A large bird just urinated on your windshield.

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9. Obstructions such as radio towers or tall buildings located near an airport are required to have obstruction lights, which are:
a. steady red.
b. flashing red.
c. steady white.
d. flashing white.
e. any of the above, singly or in combination.
f. steady red, flashing red or flashing white, but never steady white.

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10. BONUS QUESTION: A runway has an approach light system that extends 1,500 feet from the runway threshold. This tells you that the runway:
a. has a precision approach (ILS or MLS).
b. has only a non-precision approach (LOC, VOR, NDB, GPS, etc.).
c. has an instrument approach, but you can't tell what kind.
d. may or may not have an instrument approach.

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