Beschreibung

Pilot-controlled lighting (PCL), also known as aircraft radio control of aerodrome lighting (ARCAL) or pilot-activated lighting (PAL), is a system which allows aircraft pilots to control the lighting of an airport or airfield's approach lights, edge lights, and taxiways via radio. At some airfields, the aerodrome beacon may also be ARCAL controlled. ARCAL is most common at non-towered or little-used airfields where it is neither economical to light the runways all night, nor to provide staff to turn the runway lighting on and off. It enables pilots to control the lighting only when required, saving electricity and reducing light pollution.

To activate the lights, the pilot clicks the radio transmit switch on the ARCAL frequency a certain number of times within a specified number of seconds. There are two type of ARCAL systems, type J and type K.

Type J systems are activated by keying the microphone five times within 5 seconds, while type K is initially activated by clicking seven times within 5 seconds. Once activated, the intensity of type K systems may then be turned to low, medium, or high intensity settings by keying the microphone three, five, or seven times within 5 seconds, respectively. If runway identification lights are also controlled by type K ARCAL, they may be turned off by keying the microphone three times.[1]

When either type of system is activated, a 15-minute countdown starts, after which the lights turn off. While the lights are on, whenever a lighting command is issued, whether it changes the lighting intensity or not, the fifteen minute countdown is reset. At some airfields, the lights may flash once to warn pilots that the lights are about to go off, before turning off two minutes later.

When using ARCAL, it is strongly recommended that aircraft on final approach to the airfield issue a fresh lighting command, even if the lights are already on (especially if the lights were activated by another aircraft). This is so that the lighting does not turn off at a critical moment (such as when crossing the runway threshold).

(Quelle: Wikipedia)

Dieses LUA Plugin erlaubt das Einschalten der Beleuchtung auf Flugplätzen, die mit schaltbarer Beleuchtung ausgestattet sind

Installation

Zuerst "FlyWithLUA" installieren: http://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?app=downloads&showfile=17468

Wenn LUA mal funktioniert, einfach das Script "PCL.lua" in den "Scripts"-Ordner von LUA kopieren.

X-Plane starten und anwenden

Funktionen

• Schaltet die Frequenz des Standby-ADF2 auf 200 und zurück auf den zuvor eingestellten Wert.

Das Paket besteht aus

• mehreren Objekten (Lichtern), die nur bei Stby-ADF2 = 200 sichtbar sind
• einigen .str-Dateien, die die Positionierung der Objekte erleichtern
• dem LUA-Script, um die Beleuchtung realitätsnahe einschalten zu können.

Credits

LAMINAR RESEARCH®      für X-Plane®

X-Friese                                    für "FlyWithLUA"

Update 1.1: neue Hold-Linie mit gelben Lichtern zur Runway und rot (wenn Lichter abgeschaltet) oder grün (wenn Lichter eingeschaltet) zum Apron.

Update 2.1.2: Bugfix: Neue Button-Bezeichnung

  PCL.lua.1.2.1.zip (Das LUA-Script für Piloten, 1 kB)

  PCL_1.2.1.zip (Das komplette Paket für Szenerie-Designer, 1 MB)

  PCL_update_1.1.zip (nur die neuen Lichter und die .str, 4kB)

  PCL_Manual_1.2_DE.pdf (1,6 MB)

  PCL_Manual_1.2_EN.pdf (1,6 MB)