When the sun goes down, it’s “follow the greens”.
In episode 4 of FlightCast, our friend Aernout described an interesting taxi procedure that’s currently in use at a handful of airports. This procedure is known as Follow-The-Greens. This procedure was developed by SEAC (SESAR European Airports Consortium) in order to increase ground safety and enhance runway operations. Of course, anyone with a mind for business would add, “thus reducing costs and increasing revenue.”
Follow-The-Greens is a unique (and really cool) system that allows air traffic controllers to pre-plan ground routes for taxiing aircraft. After initial taxi instructions, the aircraft can simply, “follow the greens” (meaning green taxiway lights) along their taxi route to the runway. Aircraft will follow automatically switched segments of green lights in all weather conditions. Controllers can then stop aircraft when necessary as they follow the segments by stopping the green lights, or activating a red stop bar (sequence of red lights perpendicular to the green route).
Of course us Infinite Flight fans will be happy with regular old taxiway lighting, but in the mean time enjoy this video by SESAR.
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