Different Colored Flashlight Lens

Wm226

Wm226

Well-Known Member
I just bought a new flashlight for flying. The flashlight came with white, red, green, and blue lens.

I know that red is used because it does not impair night vision.

However, what are green and blue used for?
 
Wm226 said:
I just bought a new flashlight for flying. The flashlight came with white, red, green, and blue lens.

I know that red is used because it does not impair night vision.
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Halloween?

Honestly, I'd return it, and get an LED one with red and white LEDs. 'Cause you are going to lose that red lens anyway.
 
Wm226 said:
I just bought a new flashlight for flying. The flashlight came with white, red, green, and blue lens.

I know that red is used because it does not impair night vision.

However, what are green and blue used for?
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green and blue can be used for seeing at night without ruining night vision. I just don't know how it would appear on charts, not sure if it would be worse or better than red.
 
I keep hearing that a particular yellow-green filter is the ideal night color to use, but I've only seen it in the surefire aviator... and I am not going to buy a $200 flashlight right now!
 
I'm going to potentially stick my wang in a door on this one if I'm wrong but we just had a FAA safety seminar concerning vision in the cockpit at our FBO. Use the red lens. The green and blue lights are used in military cockpit lighting for use with their NVG's. Green and especially blue are the absolute worst colors for ruining your night vision. White light is better than blue or green for night vision. The green and blue lights made it to the civilian markets because the military uses them and everyone wanted to jump on the sales bandwagon for mil-spec items. That was the sumation given by the PhD the FAA brought in to do the lecture. I'll have to find the flyer to get you his name. There was lots of other stuff covered but that pertains to the topic. Had lots of cool charts, graphs and demonstrations he performed to back up his schpeel.
 
Speed Pilot said:
I'm going to potentially stick my wang in a door on this one if I'm wrong but we just had a FAA safety seminar concerning vision in the cockpit at our FBO. Use the red lens. The green and blue lights are used in military cockpit lighting for use with their NVG's. Green and especially blue are the absolute worst colors for ruining your night vision. White light is better than blue or green for night vision. The green and blue lights made it to the civilian markets because the military uses them and everyone wanted to jump on the sales bandwagon for mil-spec items. That was the sumation given by the PhD the FAA brought in to do the lecture. I'll have to find the flyer to get you his name. There was lots of other stuff covered but that pertains to the topic. Had lots of cool charts, graphs and demonstrations he performed to back up his schpeel.
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Def not saying you're wrong, in fact I hope you can find a link or something to this info as it seems a good read, if possible...not sure if it would be online or not.
But, aren't NVG's green bc the eye sees shades of green best? How would that make it worse than white?

edit:I've had an instructor who wouldn't even carry a flashlight at night. I asked how he did his preflight and he just shrugged. In the cockpit he would just turn onthe lights. I know it's only a 172 but still...
 
When I get back in tomorrow I'll try and find this guy's name and information. Take this with a grain of salt because I'm reaching into my memory for this, but it had to do with the differences between rods and cones and the way the different ends of the light spectrum activate them. I think. I'll commit to saying more when I can find the guys info.

The blue green thing in military cockpits is because the NVG units amplify light in the red or near infra-red spectrum. So if they lit the cockpit with red light the device's output would be impaired or washed out based on the intensity of the red light defeating the point of wearing them. This works out since the pilot's night vision is destroyed looking through the NVG's, it helps him to have cockpit lighting that appears brighter to the eye. (The blue/green light)

The presentation was about 3 hours long and was very technical. I really enjoyed it but the old timers that just showed up for the WINGS credit were staring blankly most of the time.

And I'm probably not describing this stuff well enough either.
 
Transportation department hosts pilot seminars in north Idaho​



BOISE - The Idaho Transportation Department's Division of Aeronautics is hosting three Safe Pilot Seminars featuring Dr. Michael Crognale.​


Crognale, a professor in the University of Nevada, Reno's Department of Psychology and the Biomedical Engineering Program, does consulting and research in vision and aviation, specializing in visibility, color deficiencies and aviation human factors.​



Crognale holds a Ph.D., and is an instrument flight instructor with land and sea ratings. He will be speaking on Seeing and Being Seen: Vision and the Aviation Environment at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 11, at the EAA Hangar at the Lewiston airport. Crognale also will speak at 6 p.m. at the EAA Hangar at the Sandpoint Airport on Wednesday, Nov. 12, and and at the Budweiser Centennial Distribution Building in Hayden on Thursday, Nov. 13, at 7 p.m.​



Crognale will present information about human vision in the context of the aviation environment and safety. Topics to be addressed include: how our vision really works, night vision, lighting in the cockpit, external lighting, problems with vision, and strategies to optimize "seeing and being seen." There also will be an interactive session with the audience to discuss questions and concepts.​



The presentations are open to the public. For more information, contact the Division of Aeronautics at (208) 334-8775 or go to www.itd.idaho.gov/aero.
______________________________________________________________​




And here's an link to his website. http://wolfweb.unr.edu/~mikro/​
 
I have used all green and green-filtered light in all my NVG flying.

The problem with red is that it can wash-out red indications in the cockpit or symbology written in red on charts and mission materials.
 
Best bet is to find a low intensity white led light. As Hacker mentioned using red will actually make any red markings on charts or any other items un-viewable. You don't want to kill your night vision, but at the same time you do want to see all the information that is available to you.
 
juan valdez said:
Def not saying you're wrong, in fact I hope you can find a link or something to this info as it seems a good read, if possible...not sure if it would be online or not.
But, aren't NVG's green bc the eye sees shades of green best? How would that make it worse than white?

edit:I've had an instructor who wouldn't even carry a flashlight at night. I asked how he did his preflight and he just shrugged. In the cockpit he would just turn onthe lights. I know it's only a 172 but still...
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Don't the FARs require a flashlight for night OPS?
 
I was struggling to look at an approach plate in the dim cockpit one night, when my instructor asked me why it was so dark in the cockpit. I said I wanted to preserve my night vision. He again asked why. His reasoning, with which I now agree, is that if you're flying instruments, it's pretty important to be able to read the approach plate, and you will most likely be landing at a runway that's lit up like a Christmas tree.

Since then, I usually use white lights turned up until I can easily see what I'm trying to look at. I've never noticed that my night vision was lacking when I then looked outside. The terrain over which I fly is pretty populated, so it's pretty well lit up.

Now, if I'm vfr in the middle of nowhere, I use red and only enough to see the guages.
 
Most airliners have white map lights installed. In fact, at night we usually turn on the dome lights as bright as they go to make it like daylight in the cockpit.
 
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