Visual Navigation Aids for Offshore Aviation

The lights, markings, indicators and electronic systems that help pilots and mariners determine their position, find their destination and avoid hazards. Q-Aviation makes the visual ones for aviation: lights and indicators that guide helicopters and aircraft to helidecks, heliports and airfields, and obstruction lights that mark hazards.

It is the formal term for the same thing: any device or system outside the aircraft or vessel that supports safe navigation. In shipping it is often shortened to AtoN; in aviation, ICAO speaks of visual aids for navigation.

To make places at sea safe to reach and safe to pass: guiding helicopters to platforms and vessels, showing whether a helideck is safe to land on, indicating the wind direction, and marking masts, cranes and structures that could be an obstacle — by day, at night and in poor visibility.

In practice the terms are used interchangeably. “Maritime” tends to describe the setting — ports, offshore installations and coastal sites — while “nautical” relates to navigation at sea itself. Both cover aids for shipping, such as buoys and lighthouses, and aids for aviation at sea, such as helideck and obstruction lighting. Q-Aviation supplies the aviation side; for buoy lanterns and marine signal lights for shipping, a marine aids-to-navigation specialist is the right partner.

Start with the operation and the rules: what flies there, by day only or also at night, onshore or offshore, and which requirements apply — ICAO Annex 14, CAP 437 or FAA. Then look at the conditions: hazardous-area zoning (ATEX/IECEx), available power (mains or solar) and how the lighting must be monitored. Send us the site details or drawings and an engineer advises the configuration within one working day.