Runway edge lights, measured unit by unit
A row of edge lights fails one fixture at a time, and a walking check only tells you which ones are lit. We fly the row and measure every unit: intensity against distance, colour, beam shape and surveyed position. The dark unit and the unit running at half its neighbours both come back named.
One row, three ways past it
Which pass we fly depends on what the row has to prove. Most inspections use more than one, in a single sortie.
Over the row, alongside it, and from the approach
A fly-over tracks directly above the lights end to end, so each unit is measured looking down its own beam. A parallel side sweep runs offset outboard of the row at a fixed standoff, which is how beam shape across the horizontal sector gets sampled. An observation arc sits out on the approach at the glide path height and looks back down the runway, which is the pattern the crew actually sees. Every pass is generated from your surveyed light positions, so the drone frames each unit rather than hunting for it.
Each light carries its own record, and its neighbours
Every unit is tracked across the footage and scored on its own: intensity at fixed reference distances, how fast the beam rises and falls, beam width and symmetry, CIE chromaticity and colour temperature, halo and edge sharpness, plus its spacing and alignment against the surveyed row. Because the whole row is measured in one pass, each unit is also scored against its neighbours, which is what catches the fixture still lit but running well under the rest of the row. A gap where a unit should be is reported as a missing light, not as silence.
What the report answers
The runway lighting rows of the visual aids protocol, each with the tolerance it is judged against.
The runway light pattern is the correct shape for the runway and its category.
Every unit emits the correct colour for its position in the pattern, and no red filter has faded out of specification.
Threshold, edge and end light intensity, and the ratio between the parts of the system, are correct along the whole runway.
The pattern stays visible across the sector either side of the runway axis.
The pattern stays visible through the approach sector as the aircraft descends.
Every unit changes intensity together and by the commanded step, and the runway system tracks the approach system without visually vanishing beside it.
Each unit sits at its surveyed position along the row, and any gap left by a dark unit is reported against the light it belongs to.
The pattern is unchanged when the airfield transfers to its standby supply.
No light near the runway can be mistaken for the runway system, and none dazzles the crew.
Built for both sides of the runway
Airports get compliant inspections without closures. Certified drone operators get a new service line through the partner program.