Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP); Flight Crew Multiengine; Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Flight Instructor
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 150; Flight Crew Total 12000; Flight Crew Type 800
Confusion; Distraction
Inflight Event / Encounter Other / Unknown
Flight Crew Became Reoriented
ATC Equipment / Nav Facility / Buildings; Airport; Aircraft; Human Factors
During a nighttime visual approach into ATL Runway 26R I noticed the pavement lights on the runway flashing on and off.  I also noted that the runway lights on the parallel Runway 26L were also flashing on and off.  I had another experienced pilot with me who saw the same thing. We discussed what was happening and thought it may be the propeller strobe effect and runway LED lighting.  So we decided to vary the RPM of the prop and when we did we could change which lights flashed on and off; either the runway or centerline on either runway.  We are wondering if any assessments of this flashing phenomena were evaluated by Human Factors for the distracting nature of landing runway lights flashing on and off during an instrument approach and landing before LED lights were installed and if either this needs to be evaluated or pilots warned of this phenomena.
The reporter states that between the two pilots aboard they were able to figure out what was happening and confirm it by varying propeller RPM. He believes that the phenomenon is very distracting and all pilots of single engine propeller aircraft should be made aware of the effect.
C210 pilot experiences flashing runway edge and centerline lights during a night visual approach to Runway 26R at ATL. When propeller RPM is varied the strobe effect is varied and it is decided that the effect is caused by propeller interaction with the LED lights which are apparently flashing at a high rate.