descends below a particular altitude such as the 50 ft or 20 ft suggested above for use with the black hawk helicopter the maximum radiant power output should be limited so as not to provide more light than is necessary to assist the pilot for example no more than 2 3 or 5 times the minimum radiant power output for tactical use the illumination level can be further controlled either manually or automatically so as to maintain only the minimum level needed at any given time and location the illuminated area can be kept small to match the fov of the pilot looking for example through the chin bubble the light assembly can be further shrouded and aimed so that the light has low visibility to any observer outside the fov in some embodiments the total power for each array of leds can be less than about 10 w or about 20 w depending on the size and configuration of the particular aircraft by comparison the typical prior art landing lights and searchlights operate at or above about 600 w and 250 w respectively and cannot readily provide the low level controlled intensities of the dust light system even if it were possible to aim them in a useful direction for illuminating.