They have gone a little crazy with those beacons. I used to like using CYND Gatineau (near CYOW Ottawa) as a home airport. Unfortunately in MSFS 2020, the rotating beacon tower has been placed half way down the only runway (09/27) right on the center line.

1 hour ago, captain420 said:

I think they need to tone it down a bit.

I think it’s a bit of a hold over from FSX/P3D the the approach lights and threshold lights were over bright so that the airports stand out like sore thumbs.

In Nancy Bradshaw's video that @Manny posted above, watch the approach at the 3:18 mark. Look to the right of the runway just as the the "sea of lights" begins. The airport beacon is the one flashing an alternating green and white, one flash every 2-ish seconds.  

In real life, they can be really hard to spot, especially in populated areas. Because of the way night vision works, you can be looking straight at one and never see it. You actually have to look off center in your peripheral vision to catch that initial flash sometimes before you can even recognize it.

1 hour ago, captain420 said:

I also find them a bit too bright. Although I've never seen one in real life, I have a feeling that with the overly bright night lighting that it's the same with the flashing beacons as well. I think they need to tone it down a bit.

Reality is based on facts not on feelings! Each airport in US has rotating beacon and every pilot knows that. You can spot rotating beacon from 7-10 miles away or more. In fact you see rotating beacon before runway approach lighting or runway edge light. The last thing you see at night after landing are taxiways light

 

I wish they could swap those airport beacons for the aircraft strobes! 😄  At the moment the strobe effects are poor.  I used to love the Carenado strobes in FSX/P3D.  I hope they can improve them at some stage. 

Some of the community guys on here have improved the way they reflect off the ground, and that bit looks great, but as a point light source the strobes still look feeble.  As Asobo can get that effect on the airport beacons, hopefully they can translate it over. 

Edited December 14, 20205 yr by bobcat999

2 minutes ago, bobcat999 said:

I wish they could swap those airport beacons for the aircraft strobes! 😄  At the moment the strobe effects are poor.  I used to love the Carenado strobes in FSX/P3D.  I hope they can improve them at some stage. 

Some of the community guys on here have improved the way they reflect off the ground, and that bit looks great, but as a point light source the strobes still look feeble.  As Asobo can get that effect on the airport beacons, hopefully they can translate it over. 

Thing that getting in MSFS are nav light that you can see miles away even during day light! LOL Nav lights is the most useless thing to have during daylight!

2 minutes ago, sd_flyer said:

Thing that getting in MSFS are nav light that you can see miles away even during day light! LOL Nav lights is the most useless thing to have during daylight!

Yes, I agree, they look totally unrealistic.  I just see a fluorescent green or red dot.  They don't seem to fade much with range.

I use ADE to remove the airport beacons wherever possible. They look horrible in P3d and I would prefer just not to see them at all.

8 minutes ago, Dave_YVR said:

I use ADE to remove the airport beacons wherever possible. They look horrible in P3d and I would prefer just not to see them at all.

You want to live in a blue pill world of fiction. No one cares about My Preference. And I am happy about that, cause the world full of candies may not be good for the world even if I want it that way.   I doubt if they care about yours.  I hope not!

Edited December 14, 20205 yr by Manny

I'm also wondering why runway edge lights are turned on during the day at all airports.  Grrr

52 minutes ago, ryanbatcund said:

I'm also wondering why runway edge lights are turned on during the day at all airports.  Grrr

 

At my home airport (YARM) they are not even ON AT NIGHT unless you turn them on yourself by triggering the AFRU /PAL system which for us is on  COM127.5 the same frequency as our non controlled CTAF radio traffic. 

Basically transmitting on that frequency reads back the name of the airport (AFRU) if no one has been transmitting recently and turns on the runway lights (PAL) if they are currently off.

You can tell by the PAL (Pilot Activated lighting) entry on the chart here if an airport has this capability:

 

This is NOT modelled in game.

The preference in MSFS is to light everything up like a xmas tree to give pretty Disney style fairy light screenshots.

 

Edited December 15, 20205 yr by Glenn Fitzpatrick

13 hours ago, AnkH said:

Hi all, as my search did not result in any hit, I ask the question here: each and every default airport in MSFS has a huge flashing beacon somewhere installed, usually just floating some meters above ground. What is this? Can this be removed somehow? I wonder why most addon airports do not have this, is this something "normal" to US airports only? Thanks for any heads up...

I believe BLOOM in settings changes the intensity of the light as well.

40 minutes ago, Glenn Fitzpatrick said:

 

At my home airport (YARM) they are not even ON AT NIGHT unless you turn them on yourself by triggering the AFRU /PAL system which for us is on  COM127.5 the same frequency as our non controlled CTAF radio traffic. 

Basically transmitting on that frequency reads back the name of the airport (AFRU) if no one has been transmitting recently and turns on the runway lights (PAL) if they are currently off.

You can tell by the PAL (Pilot Activated lighting) entry on the chart here if an airport has this capability:

This is NOT modelled in game.

The preference in MSFS is to light everything up like a xmas tree to give pretty Disney style fairy light screenshots.

 

Yeah in the US it's called PCL Pilot Controlled Lighting - commonly used with uncontrolled fields.  Sometimes at work we turn runways lights during clear sunny days on but that is rare (compared to other towered airports) because we have two closely spaced parallels and pilots continue to land the wrong runway.  Where I used to work before my current facility we did NOT turn the lights on during the day (unless certain weather conditions etc), even for airliners.

I would love to see Asobo model PCL/PAL remote lighting etc etc by keying the mic.  Example you can key the mic 3 times for low intensity and 7 times for high intensity.  Some airports have multiple steps of lighting.  Also, not sure if the AD beacons are working anymore.  Initially they were way too bright at night....now not sure if I can see any.

Edited December 15, 20205 yr by ryanbatcund