29 July, 2014

Buildings And Other Landing Areas Must Provide Helipad Lighting

By Imelda Reid


Landing pads and platforms provide helicopters with a specific area for them to land. The helipad lighting on any landing pad plays a crucial role in safe and accurate landings. The platforms are clearly marked right on the hard surface so pilots know exactly where to land.

The FATO area of a landing pad, known as the take-off area and final approach, encompasses the TLOF area, which is known as the touchdown and lift-off area. Both these areas each have their own set of lighting, which is arranged in either a circle or square shape. Official groups like the International Civil Aviation Organization and the Federal Aviation Administration have recommended that all landing lights be white. However, yellow and amber lights used to be the standard, and are still used by many locations.

Jurisdiction and ownership choose the color, but must provide a lighted wind cone as well. Although these lights were once incandescent all around, they are now offered in light-emitting diode form and allow owners to control the brightness levels. More options of lighting, if the owner chooses to implement, includes surface flood lights on the TLOF and FATO areas, and lead-in lights on ground pads.

Lighting systems can also have visual slope guidance systems such as HAPI and PAPI installed. Although they are recommended by the authorizing organizations, many people don't choose to use them due to the high costs. Lighting systems usually utilize AC power instead of the common 6.6A direct current. Pilots can radio control the lighting as well with an automated ground-based controller.

Many heliports and airports have helipads because they offer fuel, air traffic control, and service facilities that are all useful for aircraft. However, it is very costly to place so many helipads in these areas, and there is often not enough space for a lot. Police departments, however, have specific helipads on both these areas where they can place police helipads. Office towers have helipads on roofs for air taxis or emergency services like evacuations. Oil rigs and naval ships will often have helipads as well for transport and supplies.

MEDEVACs and air ambulances utilize helipads in great amounts while transferring trauma victims to hospitals. Apart from trauma, helicopters are a great and quick way to transfer patients who live in areas without the proper caring hospitals they need as well. In most urban areas, the helipads are located on the roofs.

The U. S. Allows the FAA, ICAO, TC, and IATA to issue certain location identifiers for helipads on top of the large "H" sign. These are issues often, but aren't provided for every single helipad. They can also overlap in terms of helipads, and one helipad may have several identifiers in different names and formats.

Forest fire fighters sometimes build temporary timber-based helipads for easy access to supplies in remote areas. Rig mats can also be used to build a ground helipad. As you can tell, helipads don't have to be always built with concrete. However, they all have to be able to stay intact when extreme conditions like ice hit them. The rooftop pads are obviously a bit more vulnerable, and have 2 numbers signaling the amount of weight they can carry and the maximum rotor diameter it can encompass.




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