Exterior Lighting Bug for the Whiteboard?

[CJSouthern]

Merry Christmas everyone.

@Goran_M

Just noticed that the exterior lighting behaviour doesn't appear to agree with the POH; according to page 7.8.14 "The Pulse lite system (if installed) enables the pilot to control landing light flashing to be seen by the control tower or in heavy traffic areas".

On the sim the taxi lights will flash when pulse is selected but not the landing lights - suspect that's supposed to be the other way around.

Cheers,

Colin

 

Edited December 25, 2020 by CJSouthern

[Goran_M]

I just checked, and all is working as it should on my end.  Could you post screenshots of what it is you're seeing, so I can get a clearer picture?

[CJSouthern]

1 hour ago, Goran_M said:

I just checked, and all is working as it should on my end.  Could you post screenshots of what it is you're seeing, so I can get a clearer picture?

I can do, but I doubt it'll add anything that I can't describe. Basically,

1. If I turn taxi lights on - and leave pulse off - I see two taxi lights on in a steady state. All good.

2. If I leave taxi lights on - and turn pulse on - each light altenates between "taxi light brightness" and "landing light brightness". I don't think it should do this.

3. If I turn landing lights on each light remains at "landing light brightness" regardless of whether pulse is on or off.

Is that what you get?

If I'm reading the book right then when taxi lights are on - and pulse is off - then taxi lights should be steady and at "taxi light" brightness. If taxi lights are turned on - and pulse is turned on then nothing changes (taxi lights don't pulse). If landing lights are turned on then they should go to "landing light" brightness (which they do) - but if pulse is turned on then they should altenate between "landing light" brightness and "something less".

[rjb4000]

The PIM doesn’t seem to say much on the subject, but other airplanes I’ve flown with pulse light systems usually work as depicted in the sim:

-If landing lights are selected while pulse lights are on, the lights will go steady to the landing brightness. Some airplanes have a two position landing light switch that makes you select either pulse or steady landing. 

-If the taxi lights are on and pulse is selected, the taxi light stays on and pulsing happens sort of.. overlapping the taxi light, assuming the taxi and landing lights are part of the same light. 
 

Regarding your #2 above, why don’t you think it should do that? 

 

[CJSouthern]

11 hours ago, rjb4000 said:

The PIM doesn’t seem to say much on the subject, but other airplanes I’ve flown with pulse light systems usually work as depicted in the sim:

-If landing lights are selected while pulse lights are on, the lights will go steady to the landing brightness. Some airplanes have a two position landing light switch that makes you select either pulse or steady landing. 

-If the taxi lights are on and pulse is selected, the taxi light stays on and pulsing happens sort of.. overlapping the taxi light, assuming the taxi and landing lights are part of the same light. 
 

Regarding your #2 above, why don’t you think it should do that? 

 

Thanks for chipping in. I could be wrong, but I'm interpeting it like this:

- The TBM 900 only has the one switch to control both landing and taxi lights.

- Therefore, if the manual is referring to "landing lights" then I'm assuming that it's meaning "that switch in the landing light position"

- So when the manual refers to "controlling landing light flashing" I'm assuming that that's with that switch in the landing light position and with the pulse light switch turned on.

It seems disingenious to me that in order to make the landing lights pulse one needs to have to put the switch into the taxi light position. Further, I wouldn't expect taxi lights to flash; I can't think of a situation where a pilot would want that.

So based on my (quite possibly flawed) interpretation of the official manual it seems to me that the behaviour we're getting when the light pulse should be occuring with the switch in the landing light position and not the taxi light position.

[skiselkov]

48 minutes ago, CJSouthern said:

So based on my (quite possibly flawed) interpretation of the official manual it seems to me that the behaviour we're getting when the light pulse should be occuring with the switch in the landing light position and not the taxi light position.

Hey CJ, thanks for the input. I checked this with folks who consulted for us during the development - the landing lights switch takes precedence over the PULSE system, so if you set the switch to LDG, you will get steady lights, regardless of what the PULSE system is selected to. To get pulsing, you need to select the landing lights switch to either TAXI or OFF and then select the PULSE switch to on.

[CJSouthern]

53 minutes ago, skiselkov said:

Hey CJ, thanks for the input. I checked this with folks who consulted for us during the development - the landing lights switch takes precedence over the PULSE system, so if you set the switch to LDG, you will get steady lights, regardless of what the PULSE system is selected to. To get pulsing, you need to select the landing lights switch to either TAXI or OFF and then select the PULSE switch to on.

Ah - roger. Thanks for that. I'm guessing that was Jason? (I asked him the same question via YouTube). Does seem like a bit of sloppy wording in the manual then given that it refers to "pulse and landing lights" when in reality the landing lights can never pulse - only the taxi lights.