Airport Operations Homework: Runway and Lighting Systems Analysis

This document presents a solved homework assignment on airport operations, addressing key aspects of airport design and functionality. The assignment begins by analyzing the Gold Coast Airport's ability to accommodate Airbus 380 aircraft, explaining the reasons behind its limitations. It then delves into the critical aircraft dimension characteristics that influence runway planning, such as size, turning radius, circling radius, and wheel configuration. The assignment also identifies the aircraft stand type depicted in an image and discusses the factors determining runway pavement choices, including geological conditions and operational requirements. Furthermore, it explores visual approach slope indicator systems, contrasting the older glide scope with the more efficient Pre-approach Path Indicator (PAPI). The document provides information on standardized aerodrome lighting systems, referencing ICAO Annex 14-1, and explains the advantages of single-lamp control systems, particularly in large airports. The assignment concludes with a self-assessment of the student's understanding of the covered material and includes a list of relevant references.

Running head: AIRPORT OPERATIONS
AIRPORT OPERATIONS
Name of Student
Name of the University
Author notes

1AIRPORT OPERATIONS
Answer to question 1
Gold coast airport is Australia’s lowest cost airport. This airport cannot accommodate
air 380 airbus, as the runway is not sufficient for the aircraft though it was extended in 2007.
Answer to question 2
Four aircraft dimension characteristics are
 Size of aircraft
 Minimum turning radius
 Minimum circling radius
 Aircraft wheel and weight configuration
Answer to question 3
This is INFORM’s Stand supporting long, medium, and short term planning of
aircraft stands.
Answer to question 4
The choice of runway depends on the characteristics of the aircraft, which are
intending to use the runway, geological conditions, and operational requirements.

2AIRPORT OPERATIONS
Particularly, operational requirements depend on the reconstruction of the runway (Altinok
et.al., 2018).
Answer to question 5
The glide scope used to be the most used visual approach slope indicator, which is
replaced with Pre approach path indicator (PAPIs) (Bell, 2016). This approach is used as this
is the more efficient to site and maintain than the glide scope.
Answer to question 6
Remote control equipment is one of the notable parts of the standardized aerodrome
lighting system. This system regulates and monitors lighting system operations. Other than
this, runway lighting, visual glideslope indicators, approach light system, airport beacon
needs to be mentioned. Airport beacon helps pilots to identify their aircraft at night. Runway
lights aid in identifying the part of the runway complex. Visual glideslope indicators provide
a glide path to the pilots that can be used in day or night. Approach light system aid pilot to
operate under Visual Flight Rules (VFR). This is discussed in ICAO annex 14-1 Aerodromes
volume I, chapter 10 of Aerodrome design, and operations (Dong, Viet & Van, 2020).
Answer to question 7
Single lamp control can be used in complex and large airports. In the current
aerodrome lighting system, airports use a lighting system which needs separate circuits when
switching.

3AIRPORT OPERATIONS
The above figure shows the traditional vs. single lamp approach. The single lamp
approach effectively permits the control and monitor of single lamps or groups of lamps
under one circuit. Large airports with complex taxiways use this, as this is a cheap and safe
approach than the traditional approach. A single lamp approach can effectively monitor and
controls depending on the weather condition, which provides effective light control of the
taxiways of the large airports (Bloudíček et.al., 2017).
Answer to question 8
After studying this week, I have thoroughly understood the topic of the literature.
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4AIRPORT OPERATIONS
References
Altinok, A., Kiran, R., Bue, B. and Bilimoria, K.D., 2018. Modeling Key Predictors of
Airport Runway Configurations Using Learning Algorithms. In 2018 Aviation
Technology, Integration, and Operations Conference (p. 3673).
Bell, D. A. (2016). U.S. Patent No. 9,423,271. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark
Office.
Bloudíček, R., Lužica, Š., Rydlo, S. and Hon, L., 2017, May. Power supply in LED airport
lighting systems. In 2017 International Conference on Military Technologies
(ICMT) (pp. 588-591). IEEE.
Dong, N. D., Viet, N. V., & Van, N. Q. (2020). Study and propose the size of cement
concrete slabs for airport road surface in Vietnam conditions. In CIGOS 2019,
Innovation for Sustainable Infrastructure (pp. 525-530). Springer, Singapore.