aircraft lighting refresher

so i am by no stretch of the imagination a pro at aircraft spotting or light patterns of different aircraft at night.

that's where i need you.


tonight when i was outside enjoying the nice night i saw at very low altitude over my neighborhood and aircraft doing a hard enough banking 300 degree turn that its bells was face on.

i couldnt see the colors or exact outline but it looked like a big commercial liner as far as size and the wings were a darker color the the rest. it had three reddish lights down the belly and two very bright led type wingtip lights.

no green or reds, and no strobe. maybe it was the strange angel of the turn but i found the to very bright almost blue wing tips and three red lights down the belly and odd lighting pattern, regardless of the other strange things.

any ideas?

a reply to: penroc3

LED lights on the wingtips. They have a bluish tint to them and are bright as hell.

a reply to: Zaphod58

right, they deffinitly looked like LEDS but the 3 lights and not strong or nav lights was strange.

a reply to: penroc3

Probably director lights, depending on where on the fuselage they were. They might have been left on.

a reply to: Zaphod58

might explain the banking as well.

the airport isnt THAT close but i guess if they nedded to turn around i might see it turning and before they can hit the lights

a reply to: penroc3

Echo Zaph on LEDs and night form lights. Not uncommon to forget to turn back on nav lights so no red and green wingtip lights if turned off in the air. Just not ideal since their whole purpose is at night.

"Red Right Return"....you gotta learn that if you wanna know if you need to get the hell outta there!!!