Question re: apron lighting....

[Clutch Cargo 384]

Question out there to real pilots (or those who play one on TV! ;-)):Are there hard and fast rules about the BLUE apron lighting one sees about tarmacs? To be more specific, are blue lights used as a barrier - one should never cross a line of blue lights or can they be used to show a path as well?I was thinking of using some on the edges of some very wide taxiways but along that taxiway one can cross that "blue" line onto a gate. Would that be a no-no?thanks,ClutchProject 9Dragons

[KevinAu 441]

The blue lights usually represent a hard barrier, along with the solid yellow lines, since they are usually mounted on poles. Most of the lighting you find on the AFCADs and addon sceneries with lots of blue and green lights all over the airport are inaccurate. Most of the time, the blue lights would only be on the side of the taxiway that abuts the grass. The side where the gates are would only be marked by dashed yellow lines, and nothing more. Although I have seen a few airports where there were blue lights mounted with ground flush fixtures on the gate side of the taxiway so that you can drive over them, that is only two airports that come to mind.

[Clutch Cargo 384]

That's what I suspected. Better to use sparingly rather than a sea of blue lights everywhere. thx,Clutch

[Cessnaflyer 56]

I hate the blue lights, I think they should've picked another color.

[G-SWSM 1]

Hi Gang.Kevin is spot on about the lights usage, and I agree too that they should have used an additional colour as well.Maybe an Amber colour for crossing points or gate barriers etc, and the Blue for edge purposes with the standard Green for "this way" uses.it's a pity, as I'm not sure if it's an FS9 thing or an AFCAD / AFX issue, but we can only put in or add Blue lights to an airport.I would like to have seen us able to add other colours to the ground lighting.

[Deaf Pilot 1]

Where I work, at DEN, the only apron lighting we have are green taxiway lights, with blue taxiway edge lights away from the concourses (in other words, on that huge ramp that contains Concourses A, B and C, there are only green taxi-line lights, no blue edge lights or any other lights).

[KevinAu 441]

Same in Newark. Except that the green centerline taxiway lights is the only taxiway lighting at that airport. There is not a single blue light bulb at KEWR. In lieu of the blue lights, there are small blue bicycle reflector strips mounted on little plastic posts on the edges of the taxiways. Wish that Simflyers and Imaginesim would have caught on to that detail when they made their KEWR sceneries and left off all the taxi edge lights.

[Clutch Cargo 384]

How interesting. I am making some final night time tweaks to my AFCAD for Kai Tak and after studying many night time photos they did incorporate blue edge lights. Mainly for the bridge over the Nullah, and at certain parts where one taxis along the jetty at the edge of the Nullah. I was testing them as part of other taxiways where they were so wide on the apron. Made it very visable at night and easy to follow but in reality they only had a black line used for the edges, so I will stick with that.Thanks for all the input,ClutchProject 9Dragons