Runway Light Project

Whiteplains Pilots,

As of this past Sunday, Phase I of the runway lighting project has been completed. The new lighting system consists of FAA approved fixtures with 65 watt light bulbs. The old lighting system had a maximum bulb wattage of only 15 watts. While this was suitable for ambient neighborhood lighting, it was minimally adequate for night landings, and made the airport very hard to find at night. The new lights come on automatically at dusk at a lower power setting which will provide the same lighting as the old system. However, for night operations, 5 clicks on 122.9 will bring the lights up to full brightness, and also turn on the VASI's. Once turned up, the lights will stay at full brightness for 10 minutes, and then go back down the lower power setting. When bringing the lights up space your clicks apart like this: click - one potato - click - two potato - click - three potato -.......

Thanks to Ken Plesser for putting this system together. From designing and building the controls, to acquiring the light fixtures, to putting the whole system together, Ken has worked tirelessly on this project. A bigs thanks also goes out to all those that helped with bead-blasting, painting, assembling, installing, testing, trouble shooting, and cleaning up the old system for resale.

Great job!

Micah Froese

PresidentWhiteplains Plantation Association