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Each helicopter has two independent light systems, both operated from the seat that holds flight control — the pilot seat.
As part of the DayZ 1.29 CarScript base rework, the old default light handling was dropped, so navigation lights and the spotlight have been reworked as independent, network-synced toggles that every nearby player can see. Default keys: Spotlight = L, Navigation Lights = N (both rebindable in the controls settings).

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Spotlight

A long-range white searchlight mounted on the helicopter.
  • Toggled with the L key (default) from the pilot seat — a network-synced toggle visible to nearby players
  • Illuminates a wide cone forward from the aircraft — useful for night operations and searching terrain
  • Toggling the spotlight also toggles the cockpit dashboard and instrument lighting — turning the spotlight on activates the interior instrument panel lights; turning it off extinguishes them
  • Requires a fitted, charged battery to turn on. If the battery is dead, the spotlight cannot be activated
  • Turning the spotlight off is never blocked — you can always shut it off regardless of battery state
  • Drains the battery at battery.lightDrain units per second while active
Standard aviation navigation lights for visibility and orientation.
  • Toggled with the N key (default) from the pilot seat — a network-synced toggle visible to nearby players
  • Includes:
    • Port light — red, left side
    • Starboard light — green, right side
    • Tail light — white, rear
    • Anti-collision beacon — red, flashing
  • Requires a fitted, charged battery to turn on
  • Turning off is never blocked
  • Drains the battery at battery.lightDrain units per second while active

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Battery & Lights

Both light systems share the same battery drain rate. If both are on simultaneously, the drain doubles. Battery maximum charge is 500 units. With default settings, running both lights simultaneously drains the battery at 4.0 units/second — a fully charged battery would last approximately 2 minutes with both active. The engine recharges the battery at battery.chargeRate (default 5.0 units/second) while running, so lights during flight will typically not drain the battery.
To disable battery drain from lights entirely, set battery.lightDrain to 0 in the helicopter’s JSON config. Lights will still require charge to turn on, but won’t drain the battery while on.

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HUD Indicators

The spotlight and navigation-light status icons live on the damage panel in the top-left of the screen — not on the instrument cluster. They sit alongside the battery icon and the six damage-zone indicators. That means H hides them: the damage panel is a client-side toggle, so pressing H takes the light icons with it. Servers can also remove the panel entirely with features.damageZonePanelEnabled = 0. See HUD & Fuel. See Controls Reference for the full light toggle action details.