Aircraft Instruments?

Question

I’m flying a realistic simulator of a Cessna 172. In the middle of the instrument panel to the right of the left seat (Captain’s seat?) there is a horizontal row of a blue, yellow, and white light. Sometimes two or three minutes around takeoff when I’m at four of five hundred feet, one of the lights start blinking, and an beeping alarm goes off. WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

Answer 1

Those are the marker beacon lights, which are used in instrument approaches. On certain approaches, marker beacons may be installed on the ground at specified locations (reflected on the Instrument Approach Chart), transmitting a vertically oriented radio signal, which is received by an aircraft equipped with a marker beacon receiver. The indication is by a combination of lights that flash (what you see on the panel) and tones (audible if selected on the audio switching panel, at least in a real airplane, I'm not sure on your simulator). They are coded blue for the outer marker (with a series of relatively slow flashes and tones), yellow for the middle marker (with a series of faster lights and tones), which is nearer the runway, and white (with a series of rapid lights and tones) at the inner marker, closest to the runway. They give the pilot an approximate distance reference (i.e., where he is physically on the approach, relative to the Missed Approach Point and/or runway threshold). The reason you are seeing them after takeoff is due to the fact that you are flying over them as you depart. In any case, it is not an alarm - a 172 has no "alarms" beyond a stall warning horn (or, in very early models, a stall warning light on the instrument panel) and, in later models, an over-voltage light on the co-pilot side of the panel. BTW, in most fixed-wing airplanes (there are a few exceptions, such as the Siai-Marchetti SF-260), the left seat is the pilot's seat, the right seat is the co-pilot or passenger seat, and the primary flight instruments are arranged on the left side of the panel, with engine and other instruments on the right side of the panel, for that reason. If one wishes to consider him or herself the "captain" of a 172, that is fine with me, but I'd refrain from saying it in that frame of reference around the airport.

Answer 2

Those are marker beacon lights and aural morse code sounds used as range markers on ILS approaches.

If, for example, you take off on runway 27 and there is an ILS approach on runway 9 and you continue straight out, you will first fly over the inner marker (if installed) and then the middle marker and then the outer marker.

Ordinarily, there are two marker beacons associated with an ILS, the OM and MM. Locations with a Category II ILS also have an inner marker (IM). When an aircraft passes over a marker, the pilot will receive a code and a light.

OM Code is two dashes per second and a blue flashing light.
The OM is located 4 to 7 miles from the approach end of the runway.

MM Code is 95 alternate dot & dash combinations per minute and an amber flashing light.
The MM indicates a position approximately 3,500 feet from the landing threshold. This is also the position where an aircraft on the glide path will be at an altitude of approximately 200 feet above the elevation of the touchdown zone.

IM Code is 6 dots per second with a white flashing light.
The IM is located between the MM and the landing threshold. It's normally 100 feet above the TDZE on the ILS CAT II approach and also marks progress on a CAT III approach.

By the way, the instrument panel on a Cessna 172 is in front of the left seat and so it is meant to be flown from that side (the pilot's seat). Captain is more of a term used for aircraft operated by a crew. In such aircraft the Captain would normally sit in the left seat and the First Officer would sit in the right seat, however, both pilots have their own instrument panels so there can be a transfer of control. In glass cockpits they are called the Primary Flight Display (PFD) and Multi-Function Display (MFD).

Answer 3

They are marker beacons. They actually serve to tell a pilot where they are on an intrument approach to the runway opposite your takeoff runway. If you click on the avionics panel where is says "BEACON" (Or Maybe MB depending on which panel you have installed) you will hear a low aural tone that accompanies it. Blue will sould like boop-boop-boop.

Just as a correction to one of the previous posters, blue denotes final approach fix inbound, amber denotes DA on a Cat 1 approach (about 200' AGL) and white is DA on a CAT 2 approach, about 100' AGL.

Answer 4

Those are your Marker Beacon lights, should be realtively close to your Com radios. What you have is your Outer Beacon (BLUE) that sounds off like this ---, the Yellow one is your Middle Marker, heard like -.-.-., and your White is your Inner Marker, and heard like this ...... and that is usually meaning your are 200AGL.

Answer 5

Isnt it the warning or caution signal it happens to me all the time in FSX so I dont mind it.