Flight Crew Flight Instructor; Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Multiengine; Flight Crew Commercial
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 30; Flight Crew Total 1400; Flight Crew Type 300
Confusion; Distraction; Physiological - Other; Situational Awareness
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Other / Unknown
Flight Crew Became Reoriented; Flight Crew Requested ATC Assistance / Clarification
Environment - Non Weather Related; Human Factors; Airport; ATC Equipment / Nav Facility / Buildings
34R/16L has new LED centerline lights. They are so bright and intense on their lowest setting (confirmed by tower) that it makes final approach to landing difficult at night.The main problem is that the runway edge lights have not been replaced with the newer style LEDs... so you can barely even make out the runway edge lights; whereas the centerline nearly blinds you!The lights (centerline/edge) need to be the same type of bulb so that the light they produce is the same intensity. This would make judging the flare at night in a such a critical phase of flight significantly easier.
A pilot landed on RNO Runway 34R/16L and reported the new LED centerline lights as too bright. The centerline LEDs obscured the runway ledge lights and made landing height estimates difficult.