PLT145: Airport Operations
What code PLT145 covers, why the FAA tests it, and how to study Airport Operations before your checkride.
Recall airport operations - runway lighting
What this means for your checkride
Airport lighting tells you the runway environment at night and in low visibility: edge lights, threshold and end lights by color, and approach and centerline systems. Pilot-controlled lighting lets you key the mic to bring them up at many non-towered fields.
Reading the lighting is essential for night and low-visibility operations, so the FAA tests the colors and the pilot-controlled lighting procedure.
Pilots confuse the colors. Threshold lights show green on the approach side and red on the departure side; runway edge lights are white, turning amber in the caution zone on some runways.
Where to study it
A code on your test report is an area of deficiency. An authorized instructor must review it with you and endorse that review before you take the practical test, and the examiner may revisit it during the oral. Study it until you can explain it out loud, not just recognize the answer.