[BC] KFI Tower and a few FACTS!

[nakayle@gmail.com]

  I guess I'm old fashion but I much prefer traditional painted towers with
red incandescent lights.   I know they cost more to maintain but to me they
look so much better both day and night.

 -Nat

On 1/13/06, Kirk Harnack <kirk at harnack.com> wrote:
>
> Paul Smith W4KNX wrote:
> > Strobes wouldnt have helped at all.  As a pilot of many years experience
> I
> > find towers painted aviation orange and white are by far the easiest to
> see
> > in all kinds of visibilty situations except nite, and red side lites and
> > beacons are far better than strobes at nite.  Stobes at nite seem to
> jump
> > all over the place.  You cant get a good fix on their location from the
> air.
>
> Paul, as a fellow pilot and tower lighting afficianado, I notice a HUGE
> percentage of tower strobes that operate in the DAY mode at night.  In
> DAY mode, the strobes will pulse just once each time.  This mode seen at
> night is horribly misleading, even when standing still on the ground.
>
> If you can see any of the tower structure at night, from residual light,
> then the effect is not so awfully bad.  But if you cannot see the
> structure holding the strobes, and they're in DAY mode, then it's almost
> impossible to get a visual position fix on the tower.
>
> When operating properly in NIGHT mode, strobes - red or white - pulse a
> number of times - long enough for your eye to get fix.
>
> A few years ago, while driving from Greenville, MS, to Little Rock, AR,
> I observed 10 towers operating with DAY strobes at night.
>
> Once I asked a county EOC official why his tower's strobes were stuck in
> DAY mode.  He said, "oh, we figured they're brighter that way and folks
> can see the tower better."   An explaination of nighttime light source
> acquisition seemed to persuade him to operate them properly.
>
> I'll agree that pained towers are easier to spot, especially on hazy
> days, than are unpainted, strobed towers.
>
> Kirk Harnack
>
> _______________________________________________
> This is the BROADCAST mailing list
> To send to the list, email: broadcast at radiolists.net
> For sub changes, archives and info on this other lists:
> http://www.radiolists.net/
>