yes exactly @trex5365. @Neo4316 my point was that the lights aren’t really labeled. So I appreciate that that is your definition but what is Airbus’ definition? What is Boeing’s? What is United’s or Southwest’s or Lufthansa’s… Everybody has their own definition of what lights are used when, and everybody is just as certain and passionate about their opinion as you.
Not quite, the usual list as below. Also ATC doesn’t ask you if you are ready, you tell them and then they will tell you that you’ll need to delay your flight plan or TOBT first 
. Some airlines don’t even turn the navigation lights off at all. At some other aircraft they turn on automatically as soon as the ground power is connected.
Beacon light is turned on upon receiving start-up clearance, this could be before, during or after push-back. A wing walker never handles communication with the crew, don’t know where you got that from. Must be a very long cable… Beacons could also be used for towing.
Landing lights are used to enhance visibility in the terminal maneuvering area, it does not signal anything like reduced speed or so.
An aircraft on approach won’t be blinded by some strobes, it is an annoyance when holding or taxiing behind though. Also most airports have Surface Movement Radar so transponder should be on already. TCAS should be OFF. ALT mode (Mode C) depends on the transponder type, could be automatic in some cases.
Even though they are switched off automatically upon gear retraction, its usually common to switch them off upon gear retraction and switch them on upon receiving landing clearance.
Lights break down more often than you might think, so it is common practice to turn them off whenever possible. During daylight keeping the logo and wing lights off, all lights except nav, strobe and beacons off passing FL100. Some of those lights can cause operational problems when they break down and ground the aircraft (yes due to a “stupid” light).
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Nope they are never used during taxiing, also not in LVO.
They are used to illuminate the leading edge for ice detection, they can also be used at night whilst on ground to give an indication about the dimensions of the aircraft (same as logo lights). Some airlines put them on and off as standard together with the beacons. I have flown ATR before, on the ATR we used them to indicate the number 2 engine was running in hotel mode (engine running with propeller brake on), if we didn’t used hotel mode we turned them on and off with the beacons.
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Beacons are turned on only when start-up clearance has been received, when turning them on before people are gonna be not amused. You’ll communicate via intercom or hand signals anyway with ground crew if area is clear and prepared for start so that is not an argument to turn them on early.
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But… we don’t have start-up clearance in the default ATC… And we can’t do hand signals in the default MSFS, the NPC can’t see me doing my hand signal since MSFS don’t have access to a webcam that does motion capture of ourselves doing them. nor we can communicate via intercom since default MSFS doesn’t have speech recognition technology as well.
As I see a lot of different interpretations and wrong theories out there, this is how it is done for most airlines. I have never worked for an airline where it was any different, in Europe at least it pretty standardized.
- Navigation lights → anytime electrical power is applied to the aircraft. Some airlines never turn them OFF at all, some aircraft the navigation lights will already illuminate when the ground service bus is powered (ground power connected).
- Logo lights → electrical power applied to the aircraft between sunset and sunrise besides advertisement, to indicate physical dimensions of the aircraft, tuned OFF above FL100.
- Beacon lights → turned ON when start-up clearance has been received, either before, during or after pushback. Beacons are normally also used for towing operations. Turned OFF after shutdown with propellers stopped / N2 below 20% or N1 stopped (might be type specific?).
- Taxi lights → turned ON when moving under own power (brakes off), turned OFF when stopped (and brakes set). Usually turned OFF after take-off, turned back ON when landing clearance received until turning into the parking stand.
- Strobe lights → turned ON whenever entering an active runway (either for take-off or crossing), turned OFF when runway vacated.
- Landing lights → turned ON when take-off clearance has been received, turned OFF above FL100, turned back ON below FL100 until runway vacated (together with strobes).
- Wing lights → used for ice detection, can be used during ground operations to indicate physical dimensions of the aircraft (like logo lights), some airlines turn them on for pushback until parked (OFF above FL100) some switch them ON and OFF together with beacon lights (OFF above FL100). Some airlines don’t use them at all, except for ice detection of course.
Additionally, landing and taxi lights can be turned OFF on approach to see the approach light better when landing in low visibility, when in clouds they can actually reduce visibility quite a bit. I have flown a couple of non-precision approaches with clouds and visibility close to the minima where I would have never seen the approach or runway lights with landing lights ON. On precision approaches the minima is usually low enough to see the approach / runway lights regardless.
Strobes and beacons can be turned OFF in clouds when they cause blinding effect.
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@anon50268670 's response is comprehensive. The only difference I’ve experienced in US flying from his response is that many SOPs here have landing light activated on approach not when descending through 10,000 ft (we don’t have FL100 here), but on receiving landing clearance.
If you always follow this practice, it’s a good method to be able to confirm landing clearance status- “are we cleared yet, or not?”
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I"ll hand off these duties to my first officer ha
Yes usually landing lights are used to indicate take-off clearance is received and taxi-lights are used to indicate landing clearance is received on this side of the pond.
Neither does MSFS have ground crew going out of the way when turning beacons on so why bother? 
Exactly my point… Might as well just request pushback, turn on beacon lights and start the engines.
I get that point, I don’t get the part about turning beacons on early to signal ground crew to go out of the way “the sooner the better”, that is not how it is done in real life, thats all I’m saying. You won’t start-up without getting the “all clear” from the ground staff anyway via intercom or hand signal.
This is what I was responding to:
Well my definition of early is about 20 seconds. You know, when you call for a pushback, the pushback car starts moving towards the nosewheel. That’s when I switch my engine mode to IGN/START which I mapped to the beacon lights at the same time.
If the pushback car is already moving, shouldn’t that be a reason for the ground crew to start clearing the area? So I turn the beacon on to help with that too. Once the pushback car starts pushing back the aircraft, the beacon would already be on and the ground crew is cleared the area, and I can start the engines.
I’m also talking about the context in MSFS… not in real world scenario.
The area is already cleared well before. as soon as all doors are closed its usually clear already. The pushback truck is also connected well before the aircraft is even ready for push and start. Usually you’ll get “pre-departure check performed, all doors and hatches closed” before you ask for start-up, meaning the areas is clear.
Besides, the beacons won’t help clearing the area, if someone is walking below the aircraft to remove some chocks, he won’t be stopped by a beacon anyway as he knows you won’t get the all clear signal before he is gone (if he even notices the beacon lights at all).
The beacon lights are completely separate from aircraft movement or pushback. At some airports or certain stands its not allowed to start-up at the gate or during push-back, in case of APU failure you might need a ground air source and GPU to start at the gate. If you for example perform engine start-up after pushback, you will switch the beacons on after push-back, it has nothing to do with the push-back.
I know you can’t fully simulate everything in MSFS but thats how it is in real life. Closest to the real thing would be:
- Imaginary “departure check performed, doors hatches closed” from ground crew
- Request start-up
- Imaginary start-up clearance received → beacons on.
- Complete before start checklist (below the line).
- Engine start.
Its a little bit more fluid in real life, if it does happen that ground crew isn’t ready you could perform everything but just hold at beacon light on the checklist and wait with requesting start-up and beacons until ground staff is ready. Under no circumstance do you use the beacons to signal people to get out of the way. If the area isn’t clear, you are not ready for start-up and since start-up clearance is only valid for one minute you should not have requested start-up yet.
Real A320 ops:
(Airlines may vary)
Beacon - When cleared for pushback or engine start (whichever is earlier) until after engine shutdown.
Nav - On during all day and night ops, including on stand.
Strobe - Turned on at runway lineup until runway vacated after landing
Taxi - During taxi in/out. Often turned off once stationary (holding point etc)
Landing - On from runway lineup until after takeoff. Retract before >250kts
Turn Off - From runway lineup until vacating. Off when gear retracted
Wing - for visual wing inspection in icing conditions or for maximum aircraft visibility
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Thank you.
The only two I seen mentioned differently is turn off and landing. Turn off some have said during taxi as well, and landing off above 10’000ft and on below that.
Indeed, landing lights OFF above 250 kts is unusual. Although you usually don’t fly faster than 250 kts below 10.000 ft anyway. The Boeing 737 (pre-max) has inboard and outboard landing lights, the outboard ones are retractable lights and have a speed limit. The inboard landing lights are kept on below 10.000 ft. Not sure how it is on other aircraft but landing lights ON below 10.000 ft is industry standard. Turn off lights we only use in the dark or bad weather at poorly lit airports to have the area to the sides illuminated to find taxiway for vacating, otherwise OFF.
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The landing lights on the A320 extend and retract when in use. Whilst not an aircraft limitation, common airline SOP is to retract them before exceeding 250 knots to avoid damage. You can hear and feel the vibrations from them in the cockpit at anything over about 200kts, to the degree that they include this in newer level d sims. Infact as they contribute extra drag, we often extend them early to get another extra bit of descent performance.
737 has landing lights built flush into the wing itself, so a speed limitation is not needed (Inboards)
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