MetPak As Part Of A Helipad Light Control System
Helicopters provide a level of convenience that is probably unequalled by other forms of transport. While helicopters can land in the middle of built-up areas on the top of a high-rise building, they can also land and take off from areas inaccessible to other forms of transport.
This means that the protection of these facilities is critical to saving lives and property. In particular, there has been an increase in the use of helicopters for transportation in the business, pleasure and medical fields. This increase in use by helicopters has generated increasing concerns for the safety of crew and passengers as well as minimizing loss to the heliport landing pad and the helicopter.
To ensure safe operations on heliport landing pads, information on prevailing weather conditions is also needed. Local weather stations at the proximity of the heliport provide accurate and reliable weather information in the moment when needed. These local weather stations are designed to run automatically ensuring suitability also for unmanned landing pads. Their automatically generated messages are available for pilots approaching the heliport.
Applications – Interleader Remote Helipad Lighting Controller
Effective operator or pilot control of Helipad Lighting is critical to the safe operation of an installation and traditional Radio Pilot Controlled Lighting (PCL) solutions using the VHF radio is a tried and trusted method.
Now there is a new way to control your lighting and peripheral circuits using FEC’s new Remote Lighting Controller (RLC), which integrates both traditional VHF PCL and adds SMS control and monitoring with the option of automatic weather reporting (wind speed/direction, temperature, dew point and pressure) right from your helipad.
The RLC is an all-new, fully digital design that combines ease of installation and use with sophisticated yet simple and secure configuration via the IP65 rated keypad and LCD display or via SMS.
RLC Summary Features
The Remote Lighting Controller (version 2) offers:
Fully synthesised 8.33kHz VHF receiver
Three 20 Amp heavy duty relays in the box – enables linked peripheral shutdown 3 Independent programmable timers Battery backed-up real time clocks/calendars Integrated Local and remote test and diagnostics Very low power consumption Operates from 110-240V AC 50 to 60 Hz or 12V DC Direct system control through keypad (with PIN security)
BMS interface (three relay outputs and one auxiliary input)
for additional monitoring and control Weather station interface for MetPak
Other Installations
WindSonic has also been used worldwide for monitoring on helidecks and MaxiMet could also be used.
Why Gill?
MaxiMet and MetPak can provide all of the measurement requirements in a compact package along with a simple single datastring output that can be directly connected into the helideck controls system, which can take advantage of the standard MODBUS output.
Originally published as a Gill application note (AN0030).
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