Definition
An airport lighting system at non-towered or part-time-towered fields that pilots activate and adjust from the cockpit by keying the aircraft's VHF radio microphone a set number of times on a published frequency, typically the airport's CTAF. Standard activation is seven clicks within five seconds for highest intensity, five clicks for medium, and three clicks for low intensity, with the lights remaining on for approximately fifteen minutes before automatically extinguishing.
Plain English
Lights at smaller airports that the pilot turns on and adjusts by clicking the radio microphone button a certain number of times on the airport's frequency. The lights stay on for about fifteen minutes and then go off by themselves.
Context Anchor
Seen in airport lighting information, night landing planning, and airport notes that tell pilots how to activate the lights.
Why Pilots Care
Enables safe night landings and takeoffs at airports without staffed control towers or continuous lighting, conserving energy while giving pilots control over visibility when needed.
Intuition Check
Radio-controlled lighting does not mean someone on the ground is manually switching the lights for you. In this context, the pilot’s radio transmission is what activates the airport lighting system.
Example Sentence 1
Approaching the uncontrolled field after sunset, she keyed the mic seven times on the CTAF to bring the radio-controlled lighting up to full intensity.
Example Sentence 2
At the uncontrolled airport the departing aircraft used the radio-controlled lighting system to illuminate the taxiway during pre-dawn departure.