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samedi 26 juillet 2014

Buildings And Other Landing Areas Must Provide Helipad Lighting

By Imelda Reid


Helicopters land on pads or platforms especially designated for them. These areas must have helipad lighting to aid in safe and accurate landing. The landing areas are flat, hard surfaces with clear markings to signal correct information to helicopters in the air.

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.

The owner and jurisdiction of the pad determine the color. The lights themselves are light-emitting diodes and provide brightness control, though they used to be singularly incandescent. All lighting must be accompanied with a lighting wind cone as well. If needed, the owner may want to add surface flood lights or lead-in lights to the TLOF and FATO areas as well.

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.

Heliports and airports have many helipads, due to the high availability of fuel, air traffic control, and service facilities they have. However, most helipads are located in other remote areas because it is costly and scarce in terms of space to stay on these accommodating areas. The most frequent user of these heliports are police helicopters that are provided designated spaces. Other areas that have helipads are office towers for air taxis and emergency purposes. Additionally, ships and oilrigs have helicopter decks located right on the premises for a variety of purposes.

Trauma patients and patients who live in areas without hospitals or appropriate care all require quick transport to a competent hospital. The MEDEVACs and air ambulances usually bring these patients to hospitals while using the helipads. Most hospitals in urban environments have these landing pads 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.

A large letter "H" is usually marked inside a circle and placed right in the middle of a helipad. This way, they are visible high up from the air. Helipads, however, aren't always concrete-based, as forest fire fighters will often build temporary timber ones to receive supplies. Helipads can also be built with rig mats, but only if it can withstand situations like ice accumulation. A rooftop helipad will also provide a two-digit number representing the weight limit, and a second number representing the maximum rotor diameter.




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