LED Runway Lights

[bob865]

My home airport, like the rest of the world, is upgrading to LED lights.  They have changed all of the runway edge lights so far and it is killing my landings at night!  Greenville downtown at night has always been difficult to find at night.  It blends in with the surounding lights and just disappears.  Now, with the LED lights, it's no easier to find but when you finally get lined up on final, the lights are blinding.  The runway becomes a solid black silhouette.  The first time I tried to land, I slammed my plane on the ground and bounced like never before.  I do have to say thanks to this forum that when I bounced from hitting so hard I went around without thinking about it and the go around was second nature and a non-issue.  Anyway, I tried to land again last night and, though I didn't slam the plane on the ground, it was not pretty and a real struggle.  Has anyone else landed at an airport with LED lights and have the same trouble?

[Marauder]

My home airport, like the rest of the world, is upgrading to LED lights.  They have changed all of the runway edge lights so far and it is killing my landings at night!  Greenville downtown at night has always been difficult to find at night.  It blends in with the surounding lights and just disappears.  Now, with the LED lights, it's no easier to find but when you finally get lined up on final, the lights are blinding.  The runway becomes a solid black silhouette.  The first time I tried to land, I slammed my plane on the ground and bounced like never before.  I do have to say thanks to this forum that when I bounced from hitting so hard I went around without thinking about it and the go around was second nature and a non-issue.  Anyway, I tried to land again last night and, though I didn't slam the plane on the ground, it was not pretty and a real struggle.  Has anyone else landed at an airport with LED lights and have the same trouble?

We upgraded from off center runway lights to LED a couple of years ago. Our lights are pilot adjustable and you can lower the intensity to a point not much brighter than the incandescent bulbs they replaced. Still brighter, but much more manageable.


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[Yetti]

This is a know problem on highway accident scenes.  All the led lights will blind the rest of the motorist.   The solution with LED on emergency vehicles is to aim them up at an angle so they are not line of sight with oncoming drivers.   You may check with the airport and see if they can aim them down in the ground.  Possibly some rings of metal that would shield the light coming up.

[gsxrpilot]

We've recently had the LED's installed at our airport. I believe we've got the default intensity set lower and pilots can raise it if needed.

I like it.

[RLCarter]

Home drone just installed solar taxi lights (no lights before) they're bright. Years ago they installed lead in lighting for one three, they would cast a shadow on the headliner from a half mile out, they were so bright I landed on three one instead. A few days later I was at the FBO and mentioned they were blinding and they had them adjust to a more down angle and that solved the issue

[KLRDMD]

3 hours ago, bob865 said:

My home airport, like the rest of the world, is upgrading to LED lights.  They have changed all of the runway edge lights so far and it is killing my landings at night!  Greenville downtown at night has always been difficult to find at night.  It blends in with the surounding lights and just disappears.  Now, with the LED lights, it's no easier to find but when you finally get lined up on final, the lights are blinding.  The runway becomes a solid black silhouette.  The first time I tried to land, I slammed my plane on the ground and bounced like never before.  I do have to say thanks to this forum that when I bounced from hitting so hard I went around without thinking about it and the go around was second nature and a non-issue.  Anyway, I tried to land again last night and, though I didn't slam the plane on the ground, it was not pretty and a real struggle.  Has anyone else landed at an airport with LED lights and have the same trouble?

I have just the opposite problem, The LED lights at my airport are so dim to be almost worthless.

[jaylw314]

5 hours ago, bob865 said:

My home airport, like the rest of the world, is upgrading to LED lights.  They have changed all of the runway edge lights so far and it is killing my landings at night!  Greenville downtown at night has always been difficult to find at night.  It blends in with the surounding lights and just disappears.  Now, with the LED lights, it's no easier to find but when you finally get lined up on final, the lights are blinding.  The runway becomes a solid black silhouette.  The first time I tried to land, I slammed my plane on the ground and bounced like never before.  I do have to say thanks to this forum that when I bounced from hitting so hard I went around without thinking about it and the go around was second nature and a non-issue.  Anyway, I tried to land again last night and, though I didn't slam the plane on the ground, it was not pretty and a real struggle.  Has anyone else landed at an airport with LED lights and have the same trouble?

Not a comment about the lights, but I did the same kind of landing at night once and went around immediately.  In retrospect I'm not sure if that was the best thing to do.  I hit hard enough that in that moment, I realized I could have had a prop strike, but I still went around.  I don't know if there is generally a right answer all the time, since you only have a split second to judge.  I went around and landed ASAP to check the prop (no damage, whew!)

[GDGR]

Type J or K? Or is it a controlled airport? We TYpe K and 3 settings: 3 clicks- Low, 5-Medium, 7-High. It's a big difference between low and high.