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+1 vote
asked by (272 points)
edited by

Recently I noticed at KSEA at night that the holding lines that separate the taxiways from the runways are invisible at night when you leave the runway. I think that's not correctly modelled. I think the real lights light red on the taxiway side, and they light green at the runway side.

AFAIK those lines have a dual role: Before entering the runway you wait and contact tower for permission to enter ("taxi to active"), and after touchdown you contact tower to tell them that you left the runway ("cleared runway"), being handed off to ground.

X-Plane ATC does not model these things correctly.

So are those lights correct at night?

Holding line at day time

Holding line at night

1 Answer

0 votes
answered by (19.3k points)

I could not find any documents with a quick online search that indicated the hold short lights change to green. I saw information on yellow lights for warnings, and red for absolute holds. 

It's possible this is a new technology used in limited airports. If you find documentation about it, you can file a request to add it into WED, but it will also require new art resources or code to support it in X-Plane so it will not likely be a fast update.

commented by (272 points)
I just read https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/publications/atpubs/aim_html/chap2_section_1.html and it seems you are right. Maybe the idea was: It's always safe to leave the runway towards the taxiway, passing the holding line, but it's dangerous (until explicitly allowed by ATC) to enter the runway, passing the holding line.
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