Aircanada014 From Canada, joined Oct 2005, 1247 posts, RR: 0 Posted (1 month 2 weeks 6 days 19 hours ago) and read 2166 times:
Hello all
I was wondering how often do the airport crew change light bulbs on the runways and taxi ways? There are so many lightbulbs to change must take awhile to do them and when do they change the lightbulbs? All lights are left on 24/7. Can you imagine changing all the runway and taxi way lights. I wonder how they change the light bulbs that are in the pavement, unless the cover light lids can be taken off easily? Those light bulbs must be very expensive to replace? Too many light bulbs to change eh?
AAR90 From United States, joined Jan 2000, 2794 posts, RR: 41 Reply 2, posted (1 month 2 weeks 6 days 18 hours ago) and read 2125 times:
Airport operations folks do "runway checks" (and taxiway checks) multiple times each day/night and lighting is one of the things they are specifically looking for. When a light is "inop" they send maintenance crews out to fix the problem. Normally the first "fix" is to change the bulb.... usually less than 5 minutes for in-ground lights.
*NO CARRIER* -- A Naval Aviator's worst nightmare!
LAXintl From United States, joined May 2000, 9307 posts, RR: 12 Reply 3, posted (1 month 2 weeks 6 days 18 hours ago) and read 2122 times:
LAX has a program where they are replaced either;
1) when reported out
2) each runway is closed overnight every few weeks where lights are replaced in sequence (i dont know how long each last) and things as the light covers are also cleaned and sometimes replaced as they do crack.
From the desert to the sea, to all of Southern California
They're not on during the day when the weather is good.
Quoting Aircanada014 (Thread starter): I wonder how they change the light bulbs that are in the pavement, unless the cover light lids can be taken off easily?
They can be. It's a pretty quick job. Also, it is possible to have one or two lights out along a runway - there's a requirement for how many you have to have operational percentage-wise.
JBo From Sweden, joined Jan 2005, 1384 posts, RR: 0 Reply 7, posted (1 month 2 weeks 6 days 17 hours ago) and read 1981 times:
At my airport, lights are changed when they burn out ... or when they're unlucky enough to get eaten by the snowblower in the wintertime.
The new taxiways built as part of a runway extension project have LED lights. It's interesting to watch them turn on when switching on the field lights on CTAF when tower is closed, because the LED lights come on INSTANTLY while the rest of the halogen lights lag behind a few seconds.
I'd take the awe of understanding over the awe of ignorance any day.
Travaz From United States, joined Jun 2001, 125 posts, RR: 0 Reply 8, posted (1 month 2 weeks 6 days 15 hours ago) and read 1867 times:
I worked at GCN (in the summer it used to be the second most bisy airport in AZ) and that was one of my responsibilities. Every morning before sunrise and every evening after sunset the ops person would do a light check. If a light was out they would tie a red ribbon on it and I would go out and change it during the day. These were standard lights on the yellow stick. it took about 30 seconds to put a new bulb in. This was from 1982 until 1986. Was a fun job.
FredT From United Kingdom, joined Feb 2002, 2005 posts, RR: 16 Reply 9, posted (1 month 2 weeks 6 days 11 hours ago) and read 1820 times:
In addition, flight inspection will check the configuration, alignment etc of the lighting systems at the airports when they stop by... at least in my neck of the woods. A faulty bulb is easy to see on a ground check, misaligned lights decidedly less so.
I thought I was doing good to avoid those airport hotels... and look at me now.
HAWK21M From India, joined Jan 2001, 25884 posts, RR: 51 Reply 12, posted (1 month 2 weeks 3 days 20 hours ago) and read 1521 times:
Lights are on only in conditions of low visibility.Hence the life of the bulbs would be increased.
They would be replaced when scheduled airport checks finds them not functioning.
regds
MEL
FlyDeltaJets From United States, joined Feb 2006, 1010 posts, RR: 1 Reply 13, posted (1 month 2 weeks 3 days 13 hours ago) and read 1487 times:
Lights are also only on on the Active Runway. This helps as well to conserve bulb lights. If i'm not mistaken the RVR readings come from runway edge lights so they defiantly need to be in working order.
CanadianNorth From Canada, joined Aug 2002, 3086 posts, RR: 12 Reply 15, posted (1 month 2 weeks 1 day 8 hours ago) and read 1259 times:
At home it appears they also do it as they burn out. Runway checks are done a couple times per day and I'm guessing they'd just take note of any lights that aren't working and then send someone out with a replacement. I could be wrong though.
TheGreatChecko From United States, joined Mar 2004, 822 posts, RR: 2 Reply 16, posted (1 month 2 weeks 1 day 5 hours ago) and read 1239 times:
Quoting FlyDeltaJets (Reply 13): If i'm not mistaken the RVR readings come from runway edge lights so they defiantly need to be in working order.
The runway edge lights can be used to get a rough estimate of the prevailing RVR, however, the "official" RVR numbers come from instruments placed along the edge of the runway that measure the visibility. I don't have my reference books handy, so explaining how they do it is a bit beyond my expertise, but I'm sure someone will jump in with an explanation.
Bond007 From United States, joined Mar 2005, 4351 posts, RR: 6 Reply 17, posted (1 month 1 week 5 days 21 hours ago) and read 1089 times:
Quoting JBo (Reply 7): The new taxiways built as part of a runway extension project have LED lights.
Yes, it won't be long before the position of "airport visibility architect" is a thing of the past ....
Quoting AAR90 (Reply 2): Airport operations folks do "runway checks" (and taxiway checks) multiple times each day/night and lighting is one of the things they are specifically looking for. When a light is "inop" they send maintenance crews out to fix the problem. Normally the first "fix" is to change the bulb.... usually less than 5 minutes for in-ground lights.
At some of the larger airports, there are crews that specifically just check and change lights each night .... since as I understand, there are always some to change.
Jimbo
I'd rather be on the ground wishing I was in the air, than in the air wishing I was on the ground!
Northwest727 From United States, joined Jul 2005, 72 posts, RR: 0 Reply 18, posted (1 month 4 days 20 hours ago) and read 836 times:
It depends on the airport. When I interned at KCLE, being an FAR part 139 airport...as soon as those lights burned out, they were replaced almost immediately. However, at the current airport where I am at (a regional airport), they change the bulbs when they feel like it. Literally.
HAWK21M From India, joined Jan 2001, 25884 posts, RR: 51 Reply 19, posted (1 month 4 days 20 hours ago) and read 830 times:
Quoting Northwest727 (Reply 18): However, at the current airport where I am at (a regional airport), they change the bulbs when they feel like it. Literally.
Shouldn't there be some set regulatory supervised standards to be followed?
regds
MEL.
Bond007 From United States, joined Mar 2005, 4351 posts, RR: 6 Reply 20, posted (1 month 4 days 19 hours ago) and read 824 times:
Quoting Northwest727 (Reply 18): However, at the current airport where I am at (a regional airport), they change the bulbs when they feel like it. Literally.
Quoting HAWK21M (Reply 19): Shouldn't there be some set regulatory supervised standards to be followed?
Well, it depends on what is meant by 'regional' airport. Any airport that has scheduled air carrier service must be Part 139 certified, AFAIK.
The standards regarding lighting (FAA anyway), depends on the type of lighting and approaches. Even with Cat III runways, you can get away with 5% of the edge lights being out, for example... and 15-25% of threshold/edge lights can be out for VFR and non-precision.
Jimbo
I'd rather be on the ground wishing I was in the air, than in the air wishing I was on the ground!
Sponsor Message: 
From Canada, joined Oct 2005, 1247 posts, 
From United States, joined Dec 2005, 4196 posts, 
From Sweden, joined Jan 2005, 1384 posts, 
From United Kingdom, joined Feb 2002, 2005 posts, 
From India, joined Jan 2001, 25884 posts, 