Lighting and visual aids

Runway lights help you find the runway and land at night. Some airport diagrams list the lights in a box. Here is the Monterey box. The first line lists high intensity runway lights. The second line lists medium intensity runway lights.

Both kinds outline the runway edges. The name tells how bright the lights can be. The last two lines list runway end identifier lights, called REIL. REIL is a pair of flashing lights, one on each side of the runway end.

Look for a white L on a black mark beside a light. It means pilot-controlled lighting. You turn those lights on with your radio. The Salinas diagram has no lighting box. The Chart Supplement lists the Salinas lights. Runway 8-26 has medium intensity runway lights. Runway 13-31 has high intensity runway lights. REIL mark the ends of Runways 13 and 26.

Runway 31 also has MALSR approach lights. They lead you from an instrument approach to the runway. VASI and PAPI lights show a visual glide path. Runway 31 has a PAPI, and Runways 8, 13, and 26 have a VASI on the left. On a two-bar VASI, red over white means on the glide path. All red is low. All white is high.

A PAPI is one row of lights. Two white and two red means on the glide path. More red is low, and more white is high. The Runway 31 PAPI has two lights. On the glide path, it shows one red and one white. The Salinas tower closes each evening. Then you turn on most of these lights with the CTAF, 119.525.

The VASI lights on Runways 8, 13, and 26 stay on all the time. Key the mike 7 times within 5 seconds for the highest intensity. Key 5 times for medium, or 3 times for the lowest. The lights stay on for 15 minutes. The AIM says to key again just before final.

Before a night flight, check the lights in the Chart Supplement. Next, the Salinas taxiways.