Heliport Lighting for Precision GPS Approaches 975552

The Global Positioning System (GPS) has permitted the development of infrastructure for helicopter instrument flight. The Federal Aviation Administration has begun development of such infrastructure. This paper describes research conducted to determine the optimum lighting array for steep GPS instrument approaches for helicopters. A significant finding of this research was that the color of lights for such approaches needs to be changed to a green/blue color in the 525 nanometer range as opposed to the current amber lights now used. Another finding was that a majority of the lighting needs to be on the far side of the helipad instead of on the near side as in airplane approaches and current heliport designs. A proposed lighting array was tested at three separate locations and its design is provided in this paper. It is recommended for adoption as a National Standard.